The Trump administration is moving forward to implement a recent presidential executive order on social media companies that would hold them liable if they changed the speech of users, the White House announced on Wednesday, The Washington Times reported.
The move comes after President Donald Trump repeatedly accused social media of unfairly censoring conservative viewpoints, according to Business Standard.
The president issued an executive order on May 28, after Twitter started placing warning labels on some of his tweets.
“President Trump will continue to fight back against unfair, un-American, and politically biased censorship of Americans online,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who added that earlier this week the Commerce Department filed a petition to clarify that social media companies can be held liable if they “alter or editorialize users’ speech,” The Washington Times reported.
The White House announcement came hours before top tech company executives were scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill.
Earlier this week, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube took down a viral video of a doctor promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the coronavirus and insisting that masks are not necessary, a video that was shared by Trump on social media.
"I don’t know which country she comes from, but she said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients,” the president said “And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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