Facebook and Twitter have reacted to Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to limit social media companies. While Facebook has said that the executive order will “restrict more speech online", Twitter has called it “reactionary and politicized”. The war between Trump and Twitter intensified when the latter signed an executive order on Thursday targeting all social media platforms.
Although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had distanced his company from Twitter-Trump brawl, Trump named Facebook too in the executive order. This, however, didn’t go down with the social media giant and it slammed Trump’s move.
“Facebook is a platform for diverse views. We believe in protecting freedom of expression on our services while protecting our community from harmful content including content designed to stop voters from exercising their right to vote. Those rules apply to everybody. Repealing or limiting section 230 will have the opposite effect. It will restrict more speech online, not less. By exposing companies to potential liability for everything that billions of people around the world say, this would penalize companies that choose to allow controversial speech and encourage platforms to censor anything that might offend anyone, “ Facebook said in a statement shared by Endgadget.
Zuckerberg had earlier said that it has a different policy than Twitter. He went on to add that Internet platforms should not be the “arbiters of truth” and Facebook’s approach had “distinguished itself from some of the other tech companies in terms of being stronger on free expression and giving people a voice.”
Twitter, one of the key targets of Donald Trump, also reacted to the executive order. “This EO is a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law. #Section230 protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it’s underpinned by democratic values. Attempts to unilaterally erode it threatens the future of online speech and Internet freedoms, “ a tweet from Twitter Public Policy account read.
The furor started over Twitter fact-checking Trump’s tweets. An infuriated Trump had threatened to close down the social media platforms and had also stated that he is readying the EO. However, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had put up a tweet defending his company’s decision to fact-check the US President. He had said that only he is accountable for the company’s actions and also requested Trump to keep his employees out of this.
Dorsey had also said that Twitter will continue to point out disputed information about elections globally.”Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions, “ he said.
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