President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday in the White House to defend free speech on social media.
“We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers,” the president said, referring to the “unchecked power” wielded by social media companies in the United States.The president signed the order in the Oval Office on Thursday.
“They’ve had unchecked power to censor restrict, edit shape hide alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Trump said. “There’s no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of interaction.”
Trump said that companies like Twitter operated under the “unprecedented liability shield” of a neutral platform which would soon change.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr attended the event and said his office would prepare legislation to restrict social media companies from pressing their particular viewpoints on their platforms rather than acting neutrally.
The president also noted that checking social media companies had become a bipartisan issue, citing Democrat support for regulation.
When reporters asked why President Trump did not delete his Twitter account in protest of the company’s decisions, he replied, “If you weren’t fake, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Breitbart News