The Trump Administration is taking action to promote free speech on the internet and hold social media companies accountable for their censorship.
- At President Trump’s direction, the Administration is submitting a petition to the FCC for proposed regulatory changes to hold social media companies accountable for their censorship.
- The petition asks the FCC to end the loophole that allows social media companies to escape civil lawsuits for their own speech, fact checks, and de-platforming.
- The petition seeks to expose social media companies to liability as a speaker or publisher if they act as editors of content on their platform or remove lawful speech based on politics.
- It also requests that the FCC keep social media companies honest by mandating transparency of their moderation practices.
- These regulatory actions will help promote free speech on the internet and give consumers the ability to know how social media companies treat their speech online.
President Trump is committed to combatting censorship and fighting for Americans’ free speech online.
- This petition follows President Trump’s executive order to uphold free and open debates on online platforms.
- The order called for the start of a regulatory process to clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to ensure social media companies are not entitled to immunity when they but engage in deceptive or pretextual censorship on their platforms.
- The EO also specified that social media companies shouldn’t receive liability protections when they act as editors of content on their platform or take down lawful speech based on politics.
- The White House launched a Tech Bias Reporting tool to allow Americans to report incidents of online censorship, bias, and discrimination.
- The President also held a White House social media summit, where he called out social media’s censorship and emphasized the importance of free speech in our society.