US President Donald Trump
.png)
Wayne Golding, US based attorney and a member of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at removing some of the legal protections given to social media platforms.
He said the firms had unchecked power to censure and edit the views of users.
Mr. Trump has regularly accused platforms such as Twitter and Facebook of stifling conservative voices.
The order, which is expected to face legal challenges, comes after Twitter decided to append fact-check labels to two of his tweets this week.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump accused Twitter of election interference after it added a warning label to the tweets about claims of widespread fraud in mail-in voting - also known as postal votes.
Twitter and other social media platforms strongly condemned the executive order.
Early Thursday, Twitter hid one of President Trump's tweets about the protests in Minnesota from his profile, saying it violates rules about glorifying violence.
Wayne Golding, US based attorney and a member of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, said the executive order does not change the law on how social media sites Twitter and Facebook operate now.
Mr. Golding said it is the start of a process in which Mr. Trump is asking for the repeal of a section of the Communications Decency Act that offers protection for online platforms against liability.
"It's an executive order really directed at the Federal Communications Commission, which is the rule-making division that governs these platforms to rethink section 30 of the Communications Decency Act, which was enacted in 1996, which protects them from liability for content which is posted by users, including the president," he indicated.
Mr. Golding said he expects the executive order will be "challenged in the courts vigorously." He said whether the order comes to fruition will also be dependent on the outcome of the elections in November.
comments powered by Disqus
.jpg)
All feeds
