Thursday, May 28, 2020

Free And Diverse Speech Online

President Trump traveled to Cape Canaveral for the historic launching of two American astronauts from American soil in an America rocket for the first time in nearly a decade.  NASA and SpaceX had to postpone the launch due to inclement weather.

On the return flight to Washington, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced to reporters while on Air Force One that the President plans to sign an executive order today aimed at social media companies that stifle, even censor conservative voices on their platform.

The President and his supporters were outraged when Twitter labeled a pair of his tweets about mail-in ballots with a fact-checking notice for the first time on Tuesday.  He pledged then that “big action” would follow.

The EO seeks to target the online industry's prized liability shield over user-generated content, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996 law broadly protects websites from lawsuits over what their users post, and for taking good-faith efforts to curb illicit material.

Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday the company's “decision to editorialize regarding the content of political speech raises questions about why Twitter should continue receiving special status and special immunity from publisher liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. "And he later teased on social media plans for a separate proposal to "end these special government giveaways."

"If Twitter wants to editorialize and comment on users’ posts, it should be divested of its special status under federal law (Section 230) and forced to play by same rules as all other publishers. Fair is fair," Hawley tweeted.

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