President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during an event on protecting seniors with diabetes in the Rose Garden White House, Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON 鈥� President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shuttering after Twitter moved a day earlier to add fact checks to two of his tweets.
Claiming tech giants 鈥渟ilence conservative voices,鈥� Trump said, 鈥淲e will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.鈥�
And he repeated his unsubstantiated claim 鈥� which sparked his latest showdown with Silicon Valley 鈥� that expanding mail-in voting 鈥渨ould be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.鈥�
The president can鈥檛 unilaterally regulate or close social media companies, as such moves would require action by Congress or the Federal Communications Commission.
Trump and his campaign angrily lashed out Tuesday after Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots 鈥渇raudulent鈥� and predicted that 鈥渕ailboxes will be robbed,鈥� among other things. Under the tweets, there is now a link reading 鈥淕et the facts about mail-in ballots鈥� that guides users to a Twitter 鈥渕oments鈥� page with fact checks and news stories about Trump鈥檚 unsubstantiated claims.
Trump replied on Twitter, accusing the platform of 鈥渋nterfering in the 2020 Presidential Election鈥� and insisting that 鈥渁s president, I will not allow this to happen.鈥� His 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Twitter鈥檚 鈥渃lear political bias鈥� had led the campaign to pull 鈥渁ll our advertising from Twitter months ago.鈥� Twitter has banned all political advertising since last November.
Trump did not explain his threat Wednesday, and the call to expand regulation appeared to fly in the face of long-held conservative principles on deregulation.
But some Trump allies, who have alleged bias on the part of tech companies, have questioned whether platforms like Twitter and Facebook should continue to enjoy liability protections as 鈥減latforms鈥� under federal law 鈥� or be treated more like publishers, which could face lawsuits over content.
The protections have been credited with allowing the unfettered growth of the internet for more than two decades, but now some Trump allies are advocating that social media companies face more scrutiny.
鈥淏ig tech gets a huge handout from the federal government,鈥� Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox 好色先生TV. 鈥淭hey get this special immunity, this special immunity from suits and from liability that鈥檚 worth billions of dollars to them every year. Why are they getting subsidized by federal taxpayers to censor conservatives, to censor people critical of China.鈥�