U.S. media reports say President Donald Trump on May 28 signed an executive order aimed at limiting the broad legal protections enjoyed by social media companies, two days after he tore into Twitter for fact-checking two of his tweets.
Speaking from the Oval Office ahead of signing the order, Trump said the move was to “defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, according to CNN.
“A small handful of powerful social media monopolies control the vast portion of all private and public communications in the United States,” President Trump claimed. “They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences.”
The Trump administration reportedly hopes the order will eventually set the stage for new regulations on tech platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Meanwhile, U.S. legal experts reportedly said they were doubtful the move would have any practical effect on the tech giants.
Legal observers described the action as “political theater,” arguing that the order does not change existing federal law and will have no bearing on federal courts.
Twitter, in a statement, called Trump's order “a politicized approach to a landmark law,” saying attempts to erode the decades-old legal immunity may “threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms,” according to NPR (National Public Radio).
