President Trump warned social media giants Wednesday that the federal government could “strongly regulate” or “close them down” if they continue to “silence conservative voices,” amid a flaring battle with Twitter after the platform fact-checked one of his tweets for the first time this week.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.”
The president added: “Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
It is unclear what authority, if any, the president was citing in his threat to close social media platforms down, but the tweets surely were meant to escalate pressure on the platform that hosted them.
He later tweeted: “Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!”
This comes after Twitter slapped a warning label on one of Trump’s tweets referring to mail-in ballots for the first time Tuesday, cautioning readers that despite the president’s claims, “fact checkers” say there is “no evidence” that mail-in voting would increase fraud risks and that “experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.”
The president, within minutes on Tuesday, accused Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post,” while adding that the platform is “completely stifling FREE SPEECH,” and vowing that “I, as President, will not allow that to happen.”
(AP)
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8 Responses
Fact checking becomes inherently liberal when your movement is infested by lying in every direction like conservatism is.
To verify claims against reality is now “liberal.”
Real conservatives really need to wake up to the fact that their party of choice has been completely usurped.
Deficit, debt, spending, trade….The pillars of their beliefs just 4 short years ago. And now radio silence on ALL of those.
What is most disturbing is the First Amendment only prevents government restrictions on speech. A company like Twitter isn’t bound by it.
Trump’s threat of limiting what Twitter does or doesn’t publish on the other hand, is exactly what the First Amendment restricts the government of doing. That would contravene the First Amendment. It’s clear Trump doesn’t understand the very basics of this country’s founding tenets.
Like he could “overrule” the governors on closings or anything else. Last week he was the protector of the First Amendment. Now he wants to shut down media critical of him. Why doesn’t he just start his own social media platform for the Trumpkopf velt called “Blather” or some appropriate verb for spewing nareshkeit, ilies, nsults and general disinformation.
A president who threatens to abrogate the Constitution, the first amendment in this case, is in violation of his oath of office. The most dangerous anti American president in history.
The Constitution protects the right of Twitter to say whatever it wants, true or false, about politicians. False statements are protected unless the maker of the statement knew it was false and said it anyways. Social media are is exempted from civil liability for false statements made by users, but distributed (for profit) by the social media, due to an Act of Congress, which could be repealed. Trump is free to move his business elsewhere and not use Twitter.
Obviously Trump can’t close Twitter down. The first amendment protects their right to decide what content they want to host on their platform and what they want to delete.
But it is 100% true that Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have all been ruthlessly shutting down conservatives whenever they express an opinion it doesn’t like, and this is completely unfair. They are consciously using their platforms as tools to assist the Democrat Party’s campaigns. Under the current law they can get away with it, because the CDA doesn’t require them to be politically neutral, but that can be changed.
And Trump can order the DOJ to make trouble for them by starting an antitrust investigation, which will cost them millions to defend even if it results in nothing. The process is the punishment, just like they did to him and his people. And if there’s an investigation of everyone connected to these companies chances are it will turn up some unrelated crimes, just like Mueller found on Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, and those responsible can be prosecuted for those.
To akuperma: False statements are protected by the First Amendment even if the speaker knows they are false.
huju: They are only protected against prior restraints, and maybe against sedition laws (which most Americans deem to be un-American, though technically they are constitutional). They are actionable under tort law, meaning even a public figure can sue for actual damages since the making a false statement, with knowledge of falsehood, constitutes malice (and a person who isn’t a public figure doesn’t even have to prove malice). Twitter is also protected by a (unwise??) statute stating that internet firms are not liable for false statements made by users (other than employees) of a website – without that statute social media would have to ban anonymous posters.
Toddler throws tantrum, breaks favourite toy.