Facts must be allowed to run free!
Does the Trump administration really want to go on the record saying social media outlets can’t fact-check Trump’s lies?
Apparently it does, yes, however fatuous that may be.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he stands by the company’s decision to fact-check two tweets by President Donald Trump, even as it has attracted intense criticism by Trump and his allies.
News outlets do that already. They add “without evidence” to their reporting on Trump’s lies. That’s not nearly as forthright and clear as I would like, but it’s not nothing.
The statement comes as the White House is preparing an executive order that would target social media companies for alleged bias in their content moderation strategies.
Brazen, isn’t it. The reason there is a need for fact-checking on things Trump says is because he lies so floridly and often and shamelessly, and a president’s doing that is very bad for the country and the world in a host of ways, but because he is the president he gets to claim that pointing out his lies is “bias.” But there is no one on The Other Team who lies as floridly and often and shamelessly as Trump; it’s not bias, it’s just the reality of who is the King Kong of Liars here. But they get to call it bias…which is simply grotesque.
In a series of Tweets late Wednesday, Dorsey addressed the firestorm created by the company’s decision to label Trump’s tweets with a fact-check for the first time. Twitter on Tuesday added a link under two of Trump’s tweets about mail-in ballots that said, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” When clicked, the links directed users to a page that said, in part, “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.”
We mere civilians may not use Twitter to mess with elections…but Trump, who is in a position to do far more damage to US elections than anyone else on the planet, may. But he gets a fact-check. And he wants to make that illegal. No fact checking allowed!
Dorsey’s statement came shortly after the White House said Trump would sign an executive order about social media companies on Thursday. According to a draft of the order obtained by CNBC, Trump would direct the Federal Communications Commission to propose and clarify regulations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It would also encourage the Federal Trade Commission to take action against companies engaging in “deceptive” acts of communication. The working draft of the order cites Twitter by name.
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Trump railed against Twitter for its initial decision to label his tweets, saying the company was “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
And Trump think only Trump gets to do that.
Lots of good explainers out there already about how this draft executive order is largely full of shit. Just the fact that it was issued as a draft is a good illustration. Although it is quite common for the federal government to post proposed regulations/actions for comment and discussion, Trump skipped over the usual procedure for agency input into this “draft” executive order.
It’s showboating for his supporters and a warning to the social media companies, not real policy.
Unfortunately, this is an issue where both parties do suck, though not to the same degree. Joe Biden has also issued calls to amend section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
My position is simple: the only thing worse than the way tech companies choose to moderate (or not moderate) their users would be having the government get involved.
The Twitter statement seems fair enough, in fact, rather tepid. It didn’t come out and say “This is a lie”, even though it plainly is. In short, Twitter is, finally, doing what they should do, without engaging in nasty name calling.