President Trump tweeted on Friday that he wants to revoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act after Twitter masked his tweets about Minnesota riots.
“REVOKE 230!” Trump wrote, referring to the foundational internet law that gives platforms immunity for hosting user-generated content such as social media posts.
The increasingly strident stance by Trump follows his Thursday executive order requesting regulations that say platforms lose immunity when they are “engaged in editorial conduct” and “censor content and silence viewpoints that they dislike.”
Trump’s mounting fury comes after Twitter on Friday morning masked a tweet issued from his account @realDonaldTrump that it said violates a rule against “glorifying violence.” The tweet was reposted on the official White House account, and again was censored.
The tweets addressed widespread overnight looting and arson in response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, and are still viewable if users click through an interstitial content warning.
Trump’s now-masked message says: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
The White House alleged a double standard against Trump, pointing out the company had not flagged a tweet by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei touting “excellent things” for people who die fighting against Israel.
In a Friday morning tweet, Trump wrote: “Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!”
Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, said in January that Section 230 should be “revoked, immediately,” arguing it allows for “propagating falsehoods” online.
Civil libertarians in both political parties and large tech companies are fiercely protective of the law, however, and Congress generally has been reluctant to change it. In one example, lawmakers have resisted passing a federal ban against so-called “revenge porn” amid concern about carveouts to the law.