Trump’s social media order could affect the campaign, even if it doesn’t change the law

But Trump’s action Thursday, his critics argue, isn’t necessarily about Section 230. It’s about presidential power.

“There is a serious and long-term debate about the effectiveness of 230 as it is currently written, and there are serious and smart arguments and lots of different sides of the debate,” said Pearlstein. “This is not that debate.”

Pelosi, meantime, decried the executive order as doing “nothing to address big Internet companies’ complete failure to fight the spread of disinformation.”

“Instead,” she said, “the President is encouraging Facebook and other social media giants to continue to exploit and profit off falsehoods with total impunity – while at the same time directing the federal government to dismantle efforts to help users distinguish fact from fiction.”

While Democrats and Republicans have both proposed legislation to modify the law, Trump seemingly wants to sidestep Congress altogether. Instead, his order would rope in the power of federal agencies to tackle content modification.

Trump announced plans to sign an executive order days after he slammed Twitter for applying warning labels to two of his tweets that made misleading claims about mail-in voting.

In the initial draft form of the order, the final version of which has not yet been viewed by CNBC, Trump pushes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is part of the executive branch to lobby the Federal Trade Commission to take actions against companies that engage in “deceptive” acts of communication. The FCC does not report to the president and has historically avoided giving itself a role in defining politically sensitive information. 

“Putting the FCC in the position of defining what is good faith seems kind of treacherous,” said Megan Brown, a partner with law firm Wiley Rein. “Who at the FCC is going to want to get the crystal ball out and opine on what is reasonable

But even if the FCC doesn’t do as Trump hopes, it will likely at least explore rule-making as a result of the order — if signed in its current form. That, say, experts, could open the door or opponents of the social media companies to pour in with negative comments and complaints about their practices.

Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that the Justice Department would also seek to sue social media companies, saying the application of Section 230 “has been stretched way beyond its original intention.”

Twitter on Thursday night called Trump’s executive order “a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law, saying attempts to erode it “threaten the future of online speech.”

Google issued a statement, saying: “We have clear content policies and we enforce them without regard to political viewpoint. Our platforms have empowered a wide range of people and organizations from across the political spectrum, giving them a voice and new ways to reach their audiences. Undermining Section 230 in this way would hurt America’s economy and its global leadership on internet freedom.” 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/28/trump-social-media-executive-order-could-affect-2020-election.html