President Trump's repeated complaints about social media companies allegedly holding a bias against conservatives may result in some regulatory action.
According to CNN, the White House has been circulating a draft executive order called "Protecting Americans from Online Censorship" that'll attempt to force social media companies to act neutrally when curating user-generated content.
The current draft proposes opening the door for social media companies to face lawsuits if they delete or suppress content without notifying the user, or if it was done in an anticompetitive or deceptive way. The executive order proposes doing this by narrowing the legal protections internet companies receive under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which can shield them from liability concerning any objectionable content they host.
According to CNN, the executive orders would task the FCC with developing the regulations on how social media companies should moderate their content. The same order also calls on the FTC to investigate complaints made by the public about suspected violations.
The reported executive order reflects an ongoing tug-of-war over online content moderation. Conservatives have often blasted companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for allegedly practicing censorship. Left-learning critics, on other hand, say the companies are doing too little to stop extreme content, such as hate speech and conspiracy theories, from radicalizing users.
The biggest tech companies have rejected claims that they hold any intentional political bias. They also generally inform users when their content or account has been taken down. But that hasn't stopped Trump from complaining. "We're going to be very tough with them (the tech companies)," the President said on Friday when asked about his plans to regulate social media platforms over their alleged political bias. "They are treating conservatives very unfairly," he went on to claim.
In May, the Trump administration launched a website focused on gathering evidence of social media companies practicing online political censorship. The website allowed anyone to report examples, and according to CNN, the site has collected 15,000 anecdotal complaints.