Ulcerated by the attitude of Twitter towards him, Donald Trump was to sign this Thursday a decree aimed at limiting the protection of social networks and the latitude they enjoy in moderating their content.
"This is going to be a great day for social networks and IMPARTIALITY! ", Tweeted the president, without further details on the decree in preparation which should be the starting point of a long legal battle.
This will be a Big Day for Social Media and FAIRNESS!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020Towards the end of a Communications Decency Act decree
Very active on Twitter where he mixes, at a frantic pace, political announcements, personal attacks, conspiracy theories and campaign statements, the tenant of the White House has long denounced what he considers to be an ideological and political bias of from the giants of Silicon Valley. "Republicans feel that social media platforms are completely censoring conservative voices," he said on Wednesday.
If the White House has remained silent on the intentions of the former businessman, the Washington Post says that it plans to attack the famous section 230 of the "Communications Decency Act". The latter offers Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Google immunity against any legal action related to content published by third parties and gives them the freedom to intervene on platforms as they wish.
The question of the status of host of social networks
The decree would aim to modify the scope of this law and would allow regulatory authorities to decide on content moderation policies. "In a country that has always cherished freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to filter the debate that Americans can access and participate in on the Internet," said a preliminary version of the text obtained by everyday life.
The debate on the sacrosanct status of hosting online platforms has been raging for months and goes far beyond the dispute between Donald Trump and Twitter.
The law has remained virtually unchanged since 1996, with the exception of an amendment that came into force in 2018 that lifted immunity for services "promoting and facilitating prostitution".
"Check the facts"
Frequently accused of laxity in its treatment of remarks made by leaders, Twitter reported for the first time Tuesday messages from the president, adding the mention: "Check the facts." These were tweets from the billionaire claiming that the postal vote was necessarily "fraudulent" because subject to manipulation.
The question is particularly sensitive in the middle of an election year turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, which casts doubt on the methods of organizing the American presidential election on November 3.
"These tweets contain potentially misleading information about the voting process and have been reported," said a spokesperson for the platform.
Misinformation and conspiracy theory
On Thursday, the tempestuous president estimated, in a tweet, that it was "ridiculous" on the part of Twitter to affirm that there was no fraud in the postal vote. "How stupid, there are examples and cases everywhere," he said, saying that there was a risk that the American electoral process would become "the laughingstock of the world".
Twitter, on the other hand, did not take action against other recently published vitriolic messages from Donald Trump, in which it relays a conspiracy theory against the presenter of the MSNBC cable channel Joe Scarborough, ex-friend of Donald Trump who became openly critical of the antenna.
Several obscure sites have fueled for years, without any tangible evidence, the idea that Joe Scarborough, then elected Republican, murdered his parliamentary assistant Lori Klausutis in 2001.
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