President Donald Trump that he would regulate or even shut down social media platforms after Twitter fact-checked his claims about voting by mail.
While the company has for years been embroiled in debates over free speech and false or threatening posts, for the first time on Tuesday, it fact-checked the president’s tweets.
Trump being Trump, ironically, he took to Twitter to announce this regulating/closing-down proposal.
Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
While it’s unclear what the president meant by regulating or closing down social media platforms, there is no evidence that he could wield such power over publicly traded companies that billions of people use globally.
Today, White House Officials said that President Trump will sign some sort of ‘social media’-focused executive order.
Reporters traveling on board Air Force One Wednesday were told by press secretary Kayleigh McEnany that an executive order was coming soon, but she wasn’t able to give any details about what it would do.
