Trump has officially declared war on Twitter and Facebook. Here's the latest on the executive order targeting social media and the reaction at internet companies.
- Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that calls for "transparency and accountability from online platforms."
- The order represents a remarkable and direct challenge to social media companies like Twitter and Facebook, and comes two days after Twitter fact-checked two of Trump's tweets pushing false claims about voting by mail.
- Among other things, the order takes aim at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a foundational law that has shaped today's internet and which shields internet companies from being held liable for content users post on their platforms.
- Trump's order could completely reshape the internet landscape and undermine the business models of social media companies, but many legal experts say the order has significant flaws that may not hold up in court.
- The executive order comes at a time when the coronavirus has caused more than 100,000 deaths in the US and the Trump administration's reponse to the pandemic has been criticized, leading some observers to suggest the social media executive order is a convenient way for Trump to change the subject.
Here's everything that's happened involving Donald Trump's social media executive order, and all the latest information about what it means:
The big story
- Trump signs executive order threatening social-media companies after Twitter fact-checked his tweets
Read the full executive order about social media companies that President Trump signed
Latest news
Trump and Biden both want to revoke Section 230, but for different reasons
- Trump attacked Twitter after it restricted his post for 'glorifying violence' and said the company is unfairly targeting him
- Twitter slapped a 'glorifying violence' label on a Trump tweet that threatened George Floyd protesters in Minneapolis with getting shot
- Trump's executive order specifically calls out his feud with Twitter over its move to add fact-check labels to his misleading tweets about mail-in voting
- An FCC commissioner slammed Trump's executive order on social media, calling it an attempt to turn the FCC into 'the President's speech police'
- Satirical websites are testing Facebook's policy on not being the 'arbiter of truth' by running false headlines claiming Mark Zuckerberg is dead or abusive
Analysis and important background
- What you need to know about Section 230, the controversial part of an internet law Trump targeted in a new executive order
- Legal and tech policy experts say Trump's draft executive order cracking down on social-media companies is dead on arrival
Trump's executive order cracking down on 'online censorship' has nothing to do with free speech
- Trump's social-media order isn't crazy, and it will probably work
- Trump is effectively inciting harassment of a Twitter employee in response to its content-policy enforcement. The company is in an impossible position.
The real threat to Facebook and Twitter isn't a pandemic or a president
What it means for Twitter, Facebook, and other internet companies, and how key players are reacting
- Facebook tried to appease its conservative critics for years. It got hit by Trump's executive order on social media anyway.
- President Trump's clampdown on social media could hurt startups and cripple competition with Facebook and Twitter
- Trump's executive order is pushing social media titans Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey to clash over how they handle free speech
- Trump's executive order calls out YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook — but Google's name curiously disappeared from the final version of the order
- Trump is attacking a Twitter employee over the company's decision to fact-check him because the employee criticized Trump in past tweets