Donald Trump targets executive order over Twitter, Facebook – Variety
2 min read
According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a nonprofit technology policy group, the executive order aimed at removing the protection of social media companies from legal liability for President Donald Trump’s speech on their platform is unconstitutional.
D.C. The Center for Democracy and Technology has filed a lawsuit in the United States alleging that Trump violated the First Amendment to his executive order regarding “prevention of online censorship” as his lawyer.
Trump – annoyed by Twitter’s move to add fact-checking labels to his erroneous tweets about mail-in voting – issued an executive order on May 28 that would require social networks to withdraw legal protections if they make “censored” statements under U.S. law.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the executive order violated the First Amendment by shortening and cooling the online platform and the constitutionally protected discourse of individuals.
Trump’s executive order is “designed to deter social media services from misinformation, voter repression, and violence on their platforms,” CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens said at the time of the lawsuit’s announcement. “Access to accurate information about the voting process and the protection of our electoral infrastructure are vital to our democracy.”
“The president has made it clear that the use of retaliation and future control threats to intimidate moderators into changing how they control content ensures that the risks of voter repression and chaos will continue to increase in an election year.”
In the lawsuit, the CDT said, “The order covers the legal landscape of third-party content hosts and notifies all of them that the government may be penalized and retaliatory action if they disagree with the decision to add content.” Its protection. “
Mayer Brown’s law firm is representing the CDT in the lawsuit.
More to come.
