White House sources tell Yahoo News that the office of Vice President Mike Pence, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow, and others are making the argument that it will set a bad precedent to signal that the federal government can go after private companies and seek to penalize them for purely political reasons.
The push for the order has come primarily from White House counsel Pat Cippolone, two White House sources said. One source also said that Dan Scavino, White House director of social media, is also supportive. Cippolone and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The latest order would start the process of potentially removing protections tech giants have under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says they are not liable for the content posted to their platform. Eliminating that protection would potentially opening them up to lawsuits. “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” read a message from Twitter below the tweets, linking to a fact-check page populated by links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion. In a statement, Twitter said Trump’s vote-by-mail tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”
Last year, Facebook said it wasn’t removing an ad from the Trump campaign that contained false information about former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine. The previous month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Trump had a surprise meeting at the White House, which the president referred to as “nice.”
However, the company refused to remove posts in which the president suggested an investigation of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s role in the death of a young woman who died in his office in 2001. Lori Klausutis’s death was ruled an accident, and there is no evidence implicating Scarborough, who was a Florida congressman at the time.
hunterw jonward11 realchriswilson Wow, you love circle jerking each other to gin up a fake news story. What 'officials'? Name one. Just one. You can't because they do not exist. 'White House sources' who? 'White House, an administration official' who? 'two White House sources' who? 'One source said' who?
Bartlettl_Luke jonward11 realchriswilson hunterw I don’t understand: Freedom of speech is prohibited in America, and then what is freedom?
jonward11 realchriswilson hunterw In a very angry mood! Can you see all these if he were to wear facemask?
jonward11 realchriswilson hunterw Is anyone even disputing that Trump wants to be a dictator? Emphasis on the 'Dic' part
jonward11 realchriswilson hunterw Didn't he at some point say he was the great unifier?