Trump’s attack on free speech

Maybe it’s a diversion from the 100,000 pandemic death toll. Maybe it’s pique at being caught in another spurious claim. But President Trump’s assault on social media is definitely an attack on free speech as practiced by those who dare to question him.

Trump is pushing a troubling idea: oblige Twitter, Facebook or Google to defend themselves for opinions on their networks. The president intends to shred the legal protections that these platforms now enjoy against outside complaints of unfairness. The present guarantees enshrine the independence that comes with the internet.

Trump’s order could send the online debate in the direction of China and other autocracies that clamp down on critics and parrot the governmental line. If that sounds farfetched, consider what got his plan rolling: Twitter at long last supplied a measure of truthtelling to his tweet on the supposed dangers of mailin voting.

Under the White House plan, the Federal Communications Commission could investigate claims of political unfairness. That puts government in charge of determining free speech.

The social media giants have a measure of blame. They’ve waited too long to stand up, citing a wish for neutrality in the nasty debates they host. But Trump is the far bigger problem. He’s exploited Twitter to lay out his hurtful and untruthful views as he did in his false claims about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. He followed that with farfetched claims about the risks of the mailin voting that’s in the offing for November.

The runaway lies and distortions need to be called out, not shrugged off. Social media needs to cleanse itself of his abuses. That’s not censorship, it’s citizenship. Trump’s bid to curb free speech is another alarming move from a president with authoritarian instincts and a penchant for spreading lies and propaganda on the platform he proposes to regulate.