Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Limiting Powers Of Social Media Platforms

US President, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order on Thursday that seeks to limit the powers wielded by social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

This move has been criticised by Trump's critics, describing it as a hazy political move against social media giant Twitter after the platform flagged two of Trump's tweets as "unsubstantiated."

The aim of the executive order is to check the powers of social media platforms and assess their eligibility for protection against any liability for any content posted by their users.

While speaking with journalists at the White House, he said, “have had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences.”

“We can’t let this continue to happen.”

READ ALSO: Trump Threatens To "Strongly Regulate" Or "Close Down" Social Media Platforms

Trump, reminiscing about the incident on Twitter where he was slammed with a notice of fact-check over the controversial topic of mail-in-voting.

He added, “In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint.

“And I think we can say that about others also, whether you’re looking at Google, whether you’re looking at Facebook, perhaps others.”

The Order

Experts and critics have countered the president's radical move, stating that the executive order upends the law that allows social media platforms to blossom under the law called Section 230.

Trump's move has been described as “a blatant and unconstitutional threat to punish social media companies that displease the president," by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Director of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, Eric Goldman, said that the move by Trump was “more about political theater than about changing the law.”

Adding that it “is not legally supportable — it flies in the face of more than 900 court decisions."

The executive order states, “Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events; to censor, delete, or disappear information; and to control what people see or do not see."

Throwing weight behind the decision by Trump to sign the executive order is Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Federal Communications Commission, a commission tasked with the enforcement of the order stated, who said, “Social media can be frustrating. But an Executive Order that would turn the FCC into the President’s speech police is not the answer.”