Posted on 05/28/2020 1:42:16 PM PDT by Helicondelta
Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at curbing protections for social media giants.
The US president is engaged in a public feud with the companies, which he has accused of censoring free speech and bias, and said: "We're fed up with it."
It comes as Twitter flagged one of Mr Trump's tweets about mail-in ballots in California with a fact-check warning.
The executive order points out that social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, should forgo their legal immunity from the law, should they edit users' content on their platforms.
Currently, Section 230 offers legal protections to social media platforms, and makes it clear that those companies are not responsible for the content posted on their sites, and therefore should not interfere with it.
However, they are allowed to act when content is violent or harassment.
The order will direct executive branch agencies to speak to independent rule-making agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commissioner, to look at whether new regulations can be enforced on the Silicon Valley giants.
Mr Trump argues that the fact-checking on his tweets amounts to "editorial decisions" by Twitter, adding is akin to political activism.
(Excerpt) Read more at wessexfm.com ...
I think it’s a platform vs publisher issue, in that conservative voices are silenced while liberal ones aren’t. Clear bias with that.
My only question reading the executive order is why did President Trump not make a primetime address to the nation to read this, to bypass the media interpretation of it, to bring this directly to the people? He has a sober traditional bully pulpit if he wanted to use it, I do not understand why he does not.
I’m not sure about what going with these companies they are certainly making money. They are also doing some form of broadcasting over public airways by satellite like radio and TV and what happens on those frequencies are very strictly regulated by the FCC ask any ham radio operator or commercial Radio or TV station.If they are are using those frequencies to influence/favor certain political parties and harm others this could be very interesting.
Yep, the president better be careful with this issue...a lot of “non-abusing/non-censoring” sites may be caught up and declared “publishers” and incur liability for libel & slander, etc.. Sites like FR and the new “LBRY” YouTube alternative.
“LBRY” blockchain YouTube alternative: https://lbry.com
The presidents’ EO (pretty “general”/editorial in nature): https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship/
“Platform vs. Publisher” issue info.:
https://www.do-op.com/2018/12/13/social-media-platforms-publishers/
https://www.city-journal.org/html/platform-or-publisher-15888.html
I was telling my son last night, you’re either a platform (like ATT) or you’re a publisher.
Will we object if att starts censoring our texts and conversations? Damn straight we will.
I did. Yes. It’s my understanding the statue actually needs to be changed.
Why?
What part of the statute allows them to be an editor/publisher?
By that logic, NY Times ONLINE can let people publish editorials accusing you of raping children and they can’t be held liable.
people have to be able to criticize the government. full stop.
OTOH neither journalism not twitterism can be a title of nobility or an established priesthood which can criticize but be essentially immune from response.
Seems like Twitter, as a platform but not a forum exclusively for its own opinions, enabled Trump to become POTUS.
In the sense that it is explicitly conservative and enforces that via its moderators, FR is not a platform.
But in the
sense, there cannot actually be a pure platform devoid of politics. Left wing politics will always intrude in any neutral platform.OSullivans First Law
An eternal truth.
By John OSullivan EDITORS NOTE: This appeared in the October 27, 1989, issue of National Review.Robert Michels as any reader of James Burnham's finest book, The Machiavellians, knows was the author of the Iron Law of Oligarchy. This states that in any organization the permanent officials will gradually obtain such influence that its day-to-day program will increasingly reflect their interests rather than its own stated philosophy. To take a homely example, congressmen from egalitarian parties somehow end up voting for higher pay and generous expenses for congressmen. We can also catch an ironic echo of Michels's law in Stalin's title of General Secretary, as well as in the fact that powerful mandarins in the British government creep about under such deceptive pseudonyms as "Permanent Under-Secretary. . . .
All of which is by way of introducing a new law of my own . . .I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. The reason is, of course, that people who staff such bodies tend to be the sort who don't like private profit, business, making money, the current organization of society, and, by extension, the Western world. At which point Michels's Iron Law of Oligarchy takes over and the rest follows.
- O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.
A little corruption begets more corruption as Basiat explained in his essay, The Law (download my edited and abridged version in Word format here).
The Constitution is merely the skeleton of The Law. To supply the vital organs and sinews requires the people living at any point in history to actually LIVE those principles and defend them.
We're now at a crucial point in history where the freedom-giving principles of the Law are gaining power. And the forces that would corrupt the Law are temporarily in retreat (though marshalling their forces to make a comeback).
In the most recent weeks we've seen some very exciting things happening! Don't you think?
The exposure of Obamagate, the regulation of Twitter, the rise in power of conservative social media voices, and our new press secretary (Kayleigh "Shillelagh" McEnany) clubbing the Fake News reporters day-after-day with her Book of Facts.
This is an exciting time to be an American patriot. When the Sun pushes the clouds apart, I look up and see John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Paine grinning down and giving Trump the thumbs up sign!
Presently, social media platforms are protected from liability on the condition that they are simply platforms for others and exert no editorial control over content. They have quickly lost that special protection and the executive order starts with that. It changes a lot.
bingo!
Talks talk. Walks walk. Vote for again.
You are partly correct in that it is a private platform (Twitter, I mean) with its own set of rules. Users agree to abide by those rules, but platform providers must conspicuously post those policies and apply them uniformly to comply with Sec 230. Clearly, Twitter surrenders its Sec 230 status by cherry-picking which tweets it edits and which it doesn’t, and offers no clarifying data on how its terms of service have been violated by users it censors. Being a private company does not exempt private companies from discrimination. There’s a word the lefties love to use, and Trump essentially is using it as an object lesson against them
[No more deleted posts and no more zots.]
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