President Trump’s reelection campaign managers said social media companies “have it in” for the president and that was among the reasons the campaign quit buying Twitter ads.
“We have known for a long time that social media companies have it in for conservatives in general and President Trump specifically,” Brad Parscale said in a statement, chiding content platforms for operating as “arbiters of truth” by censoring or fact-checking shared content.
Parscale said Twitter failed to deal with “lies” shared on the platform by presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and “outrageous propaganda claims” by Chinese government-linked accounts, despite adding a “fact-check” to a Trump tweet.
The president accused the company of “stifling FREE SPEECH” after its treatment of his tweet, and Trump said he would respond. On Thursday, he signed an executive order challenging the liability protections afforded social media platforms under Section 230 of the Federal Communications Act.
“Social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they’re a neutral platform, which they’re not,” Trump said during the announcement in the Oval Office.
Trump talked about his own importance to Twitter and mused about shutting down such companies.
“I think I’d be hurting it very badly if we didn’t use it anymore. I mean, we have other sites we could use, I guess,” Trump added.
Rep. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who co-authored Section 230, said in response to the president’s order that he has warned “for years” of the administration’s efforts “to chill speech and bully companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter” into affording Trump favorable treatment. “Today, Trump proved me right,” he said.
