Posted on 05/27/2020 8:10:55 AM PDT by kevcol
President Trump on Wednesday threatened to “strongly regulate” or close down social media platforms if they silence conservative voices, stepping up his criticism after Twitter attached fact-checking context to Mr. Trump’s tweets for the first time on Tuesday.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” the president said on Twitter.
“We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that…happen again,” the president said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
It’s happening
Twitter is completely screwed, and YouTube/FB might not be all that better off.
“POTUS has no constitutional authority to shut down any element of social media.”
No, but he can break them up into little pieces like Standard Oil if they’re using monopolistic power to stifle competition. The question here is does Twitter’s behavior rise to that level?
the White House has said President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order, Fox News' "Special Report" reported, responding to Twitter's recent actions, if not long-condemned bias against conservatives.
Trump had teased "big action" via Twitter on Wednesday morning:
"Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!"
In general, I agree, but these companies chose to become public entities instead of remaining private.
I believe that will be one of the points Trump will leverage.
What broadcast licenses? The Internet doesn’t have broadcast licenses
Yes it does. Efforts to prevent freedom of speech require the government to come down with full force on people denying the public right to freedom of speech.
There is nothing new about government t wishing to control private speech.
Whoa there! That is completely @$$ backwards. The government is required to *STOP* people who attempt to control speech.
These are privately owned businesses.
Requiring public participation. The public does not give up it's rights just because someone else owns the infrastructure through which they communicate. See Telephone Company.
The government should not enforce speech codes. You have no right to be heard.
Again, you have it deliberately @$$ backwards. The government absolutely has an obligation to *PREVENT* the enforcement of speech codes.
And yes, you D@mn sure do have just as much right to be heard as any other American. They cannot be allowed to censor political speech.
This is an existential point that I do not think you grasp. Allow this to continue, and you will in fact lose every other f***ing freedom you think is important.
This one freedom, "Freedom of Speech" is the only thing that allows the dictators to be controlled by the larger populace. If you are so stupid as to allow that to be loopholed through the "private" business claim, then you will see all other freedoms lost subsequently.
You need to ponder this. You act like you have no understanding of the eventual ramifications of this current status quo.
It does no good to reach out to a tiny audience when the vast majority of people are at the normal public gathering place. The people who need to hear you won't hear you.
This is why Facebook and other silicon valley tech dictatorships needs to be broken. We cannot allow freedom of speech to be controlled by tech giants. They are already doing whatever China tells them to do, and we have now effectively government censorship of speech by China through the backdoor of "private" companies doing their bidding.
It will always be thus so long as private companies are allowed to censor speech.
Poor guy’s first name sounds like an housecat’s interrupted climax.
Yes. Exactly.
Well, when I signed up for usa.life, I was amazed how many of my Facebook friends had already opened accounts and had yet to promote it. It has to start somewhere. Thanks, though for your cynicism.
I used to think I was getting too cynical. As I got older, I realized you can never be too cynical. :)
I am very relieved to see our President on top of this.
Am not and never will be in favor of more regulations, restrictions, rules, or other government interference in private businesses.
These are not private businesses——these are publicly-held companies subject to SEC laws.
They raise money from the public and are traded on the stock exchange,
They “say” they are common carriers-—like planes, trains, cabs, buses........
Twitter is not a common carrier-——it is a publicly-held company subject to the laws of the SEC.
TWITTERS 2013 PROSPECTUS filed with the SEC
LINK-—https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312513390321/d564001ds1.htm
I would even go so far to say that the left is so out of control that Trump will have to resort to extra-Constitutional measures to resort some semblance of order.
In other words, short-term, we have to violate the Constitution in order to save it.
Flame away, conservative purists. For my part, I want to see the left crushed, even if it means dragging a few thousand leading commies in front of military tribunals.
And those few thousand commies would definitely include Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and their senior staff.
Guess I’m confused. Are there any licenses required for the business Twitter and Facebook are in?
I believe President Trump will leave Twitter and go to a lesser known platform.. and when he does I want stock in that company!
No. Do you think there should be?
Does your standard apply to FreeRepublic as well? Should the government be required to stop monitors who delete liberal opinions and users?
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