U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive
order on social media on Thursday, according to local media
reports.
The reports, citing unnamed White House officials, came a day
after microblogging site, Twitter, tagged Trump’s tweets on mail-in
voting as misleading.
In the tweets, the president told his over 80 million followers
that voting through mail, otherwise known as mail-in ballots, was
prone to fraud.
Shortly after, Twitter tagged the tweets with a circled
exclamation mark followed by the text: “Get the facts about mail-in
ballots” in a hyperlink.
The link takes readers to a Twitter fact-check page that debunks
the claim.
This infuriated the president who accused Twitter of interfering
in the Nov. 3 presidential election, and then threatened to
“heavily regulate” or close down social media platforms.
Details of the impending executive order were not provided, but
Newsweek magazine offered a clue in its report.
The magazine quoted two unnamed allies of the President in
Congress as saying they were willing to strip Twitter of the
“special speech liability immunity it receives because of the
fact-checking flap”.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly
faulted Twitter for fact-checking Trump’s tweets.
Zuckerberg reasoned the social media platforms should not be the
“arbiters of truth”, according to the New York Post.
The paper said the Facebook CEO spoke in an interview with Fox
News scheduled to air on Thursday.
“We have a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this.
“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter
of truth of everything that people say online.
“In general, private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially
these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing
that,” he reportedly said.(NAN)
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive
order on social media on Thursday, according to local media
reports.
The reports, citing unnamed White House officials, came a day
after microblogging site, Twitter, tagged Trump’s tweets on mail-in
voting as misleading.
In the tweets, the president told his over 80 million followers
that voting through mail, otherwise known as mail-in ballots, was
prone to fraud.
Shortly after, Twitter tagged the tweets with a circled
exclamation mark followed by the text: “Get the facts about mail-in
ballots” in a hyperlink.
The link takes readers to a Twitter fact-check page that debunks
the claim.
This infuriated the president who accused Twitter of interfering
in the Nov. 3 presidential election, and then threatened to
“heavily regulate” or close down social media platforms.
Details of the impending executive order were not provided, but
Newsweek magazine offered a clue in its report.
The magazine quoted two unnamed allies of the President in
Congress as saying they were willing to strip Twitter of the
“special speech liability immunity it receives because of the
fact-checking flap”.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly
faulted Twitter for fact-checking Trump’s tweets.
Zuckerberg reasoned the social media platforms should not be the
“arbiters of truth”, according to the New York Post.
The paper said the Facebook CEO spoke in an interview with Fox
News scheduled to air on Thursday.
“We have a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this.
“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter
of truth of everything that people say online.
“In general, private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially
these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing
that,” he reportedly said.(NAN)