Trump takes on social media

Mr Trump told reporters at ceases to be a neutral public Trump US PRESIDENT has signed an Donald order cc the White House he acted beplatform and they become an

n seeking to strip social media gicause big tech firms “have had editor with a viewpoint,” Mr r ants such as Twitter of legal unchecked power to censor, Trump said. “And I think we e immunity for content on their restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter can say that about others also, o, platforms in a move any form of communication whether you’re looking at by his critics as a legally ttslammed dubi-

between private citizens or Google, whether you’re lookous act of political revenge. large public audiences”. ing at Facebook, perhaps oth-

The executive order calls on “We can’t let this continue ers.” government regulators to to happen,” he said. Critics said however that t evaluate if online platforms The move came a day after Mr Trump (right) had no auth- should be eligible for liability an angry tirade from the US ority to regulate private inter- protection for content posted leader against Twitter after the net operators or to change the e by their millions of users. platform for the first time lalaw surrounding them.

If enforced, the action belled two of his tweets – on The American Civil Liber- would up-end decades of prethe increasingly contentious ties Union called Mr Trump’s cedent and treat internet plattopic of mail-in voting, with order “a blatant and unconstiforms as “publishers” fact-check notices – misleadtutional threat to punish social potentially liable for user-gening. media companies that diserated content. “In those moments, Twitter please the president.”