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Donald Trump, angered by a recent Twitter fact-check, is reportedly going to sign an executive order that tasks the FCC with “clarifying†regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that protects online platforms from liability for the things posted by third-party users.No one should be fooled. This would be an Obama-style executive abuse, meant not to “clarify†but to circumvent the will and intent of the legislative branch for partisan reasons. Section 230 wasn’t passed to regulate fairness or neutrality of political speech on platforms — a nebulous and unenforceable demand, even if it had been — but to allow websites to deal with online indecency . . . . . . Social media provided Trump with the power to bypass traditional media and speak directly to the American people. During his presidency, social media afforded Trump the ability to contest Russia-collusion accusations and other charges without having his words churned through the usual filters.It is likewise ridiculous to contend that “conservatives†been “totally silenced†when, in many ways, Twitter has given them their biggest platform ever. Offhand, I can think of a half-dozen online personalities who have amassed more than a million followers. The only right-wingers with similar audiences in the mid-90s were radio talk-show hosts. Which is why liberals spent years arguing for “Fairness Doctrines†to regulate speech equity . . . The administration risks creating new methods to chill speech without benefiting open debate . . .
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Topic: Trump’s Illiberal Internet Fairness Doctrine (Read 191 times)
