Trump takes on social media

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has signed an order seeking to strip social media giants such as Twitter of legal immunity for content on their platforms in a move slammed by his critics as a legally dubious act of political revenge.

The executive order calls on government regulators to evaluate if online platforms should be eligible for liability protection for content posted by their millions of users.

If enforced, the action would up-end decades of precedent and treat internet platforms as “publishers” potentially liable for user-generated content.

Mr Trump told reporters at the White House he acted because big tech firms “have had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences”.

“We can’t let this continue to happen,” he said.

The move came a day after an angry tirade from the US leader against Twitter after the platform for the first time labelled two of his tweets – on the increasingly contentious topic of mail-in voting, with fact-check notices – misleading.

“In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint,” Mr Trump said. “And I think we can say that about others also, whether you’re looking at Google, whether you’re looking at Facebook, perhaps others.”

Critics said however that Mr Trump had no authority to regulate private internet operators or to change the law surrounding them.

The American Civil Liberties Union called Mr Trump’s order “a blatant and unconstitutional threat to punish social media companies that displease the president.”