⁍ U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on Wednesday with state attorneys general about removing a liability shield protecting social media companies.
⁍ The separate meetings highlight the efforts by the Trump administration to move against an industry that he has accused of stifling conservative voices.
– “Online censorship goes far beyond the issue of free speech,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said Monday. “It’s also one of protecting consumers and ensuring they are informed of their rights and resources to fight back under the law.” Reuters reports that President Trump on Wednesday will meet with state attorneys general from eight states—Texas, Arizona, Utah, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Missouri—at the White House to discuss removing a liability shield protecting social media companies. The attorneys general are, like Trump, all Republicans. Deere says the attorneys general are “on the front lines of this issue” and Trump “wants to hear their perspectives.” In May, Trump signed an executive order that seeks new regulatory oversight of tech firms’ content moderation decisions and backed legislation to scrap or weaken the relevant provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act, Section 230. Trump directed the Commerce Department to file a petition asking the Federal Communication Commission to limit protections under Section 230 after Twitter warned readers in May to fact-check his posts about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting. A group representing major internet companies including Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, and Google urged the FCC to reject the petition, saying it was “misguided, lacks grounding in law, and poses serious public policy concerns.’ FCC Chairman Ajit Pai opened the petition to a 45-day public comment period.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-social-media-trump/trump-administration-plans-two-meetings-on-big-tech-on-wednesday-idUSKCN26D0A0