Social-Media
President Trump's social media order would place voting rights at risk, latest litigation says
A handful of election rights groups filed a case against President Donald Trump 's executive social media order on Thursday, according to the Protocol. The order was signed after Twitter's fact-checked misleading tweets by Trump on mail-in voting earlier this year, and Thursday's complaint aims to insure that websites will combat election disinformation online.
In their lawsuit, groups like Rock the Vote and Free Press contend that the directive has the ability to jeopardize the rights of people who have access to mail-in material on social media sites.
Thursday's case followed a similar complaint brought in June by the Centre for Democracy and Technology, which alleged that section 230 of the Trump administration 's order violated the First Amendment.
Still, besides working on our central goal to encourage involvement in our democracy, Rock the Vote has been burdened with the unpleasant and ludicrous role of correcting disinformation, lies spread by government leaders, which can and should be reviewed by online media, said Rock Voting President Carolyn DeWitt in a statement.
In May, Trump signed an executive order punishing tech giants like Twitter after having reviewed two of his mail-in messages for the first time earlier that week. As the general election draws close, Trump has consistently made misleading statements of mail-in voting contributing to electoral fraud. These are the misleading claims that Twitter has verified and why the election rights organizations filed their case on Thursday. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Facebook was already planning for a scenario in which Trump interfered with November 's final vote count.
Under Section 230 of the Media Decency Act, the order has the power to revoke off network liability rights. Section 230 grants social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook broad protection from lawsuits for advertising used on their websites. The order called for the Federal Communications Commission to reinterpret the legislation and to require the Federal Trade Commission to develop an electronic bias monitoring platform for consumers.
In July, the Commerce Department reportedly lodged a complaint to the FCC asking on the Regulator to reinterpret the statute.
It has long been the aim of the United States to promote a vibrant exchange of ideas on the Internet and a free distribution of information around the world, said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in a statement at the time. President Trump is committed to defending the freedom of all Americans to share their opinions and not to face unjustified limitations or arbitrary interference by a handful of wealthy corporations.
Shortly afterwards, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the Agency would receive public comment on the petition for legislation submitted by the Commerce Department. The comment period is set to expire on 17 September.
