Trump signs order taking on Twitter, Facebook

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to empower federal regulators to crack down on social media companies like Twitter and Facebook and potentially take away the legal protections that shield them from liability for what gets posted on their platforms.

Trump and his allies have often accused Twitter and Facebook of bias against conservative voices and the president had been urged for years to take a harder line against the companies. He had resisted until this week, when Twitter factchecked his own false statements in two posts. That move by Twitter prompted an outcry from conservatives, who said the platform should not be able to selectively choose whose statements it is fact-checking.

“We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers it has faced in American history,” Trump told reporters in signing the order in the Oval Office, with William Barr, the attorney general, standing nearby.

“They’ve had unchecked power to censure, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Trump said, saying there was “no precedent” for it. “We cannot allow that to happen, especially when they go about doing what they’re doing.”

Twitter, the president said, was making “editorial decisions.”

“In these moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform — they become an editor with a viewpoint,” he said, saying Facebook and Google are included in his critiques.

Barr told reporters that the tech companies were behaving like “publishers,” and Trump said the attorney general would work with states on their own regulations related to online platforms.

With its order, the administration sought to curtail the protections currently offered to technology companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which limits the liability that companies face for content posted by their users.

The order could end up backfiring on Trump, who has used Twitter to lob insults at rivals and to interact freely with his supporters. Trump often tests the boundaries with his commentary.