Trump executive order targets social platforms for 'editorial conduct' in moderation

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This story was originally published 2020/05/28
10:15am PDTon May 28, 2020 and last updated 2020/05/29
9:10am PDTon May 29, 2020. 

U.S. President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order as early as today that would modify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — a critical law that protects online platforms that moderate or censor offensive content from charges such as libel and First Amendment violations. The order appears tailored to hurt the largest platforms like Facebook and Twitter the most.

Kate Klonick, a fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project, published a draft of the executive order that she was able to obtain overnight. The gist is that the Department of Commerce would petition the FCC to clarify Section 230 as to not protect online platforms from First Amendment lawsuits for editorial conduct, which includes actions that are:

  1. deceptive, pretextual, or inconsistent with a provider's terms of service; or
  2. the result of inadequate notice, the product of unreasoned explanation, or having been undertaking without a meaningful opportunity to be heard

On Tuesday, Twitter embedded links to fact-checking articles within two of Trump's tweets about the likelihood of voter fraud with mail-in ballots. California had announced earlier this month that it would conduct this November's general election completely by post.