The White House on Wednesday confirmed the Department of Commerce had filed a petition to the Federal Communications Commission challenging the regulation of large Silicon Valley social media companies.
“President Trump will continue to fight back against unfair, un-American, and politically biased censorship of Americans online,” the statement from the White House press secretary said.
The petition to clarify the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was filed on Monday, the White House said.
“The petition requests that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) clarify that Section 230 does not permit social media companies that alter or editorialize users’ speech to escape civil liability,” the statement from the White House explained.
The petition also requests “the FCC clarify when an online platform curates content in ‘good faith,’ and requests transparency requirements on their moderation practices.”
Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple executives are scheduled to testify digitally at the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the power of online platforms, putting online censorship in focus for Americans ahead of the election.
In May, Trump signed an executive order to check the power of online social media companies to censor conservatives online.
“They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences,” he said. “There’s no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.