to say anything — and to pay to ensure that his wild claims reach millions of voters. SuperPACs and other dark money groups are following his example. Trump and his allies have used Facebook to spread fear and misleading information about voting, attempting to compromise the means of holding power to account: our voices and our ballot boxes.”
In contrast to Twitter, which has put fact-checking and other labels on some of the president’s tweets, Facebook has refused to take such actions, arguing that it is better to take a hands-off approach to political speech. Twitter is also not accepting political ads, while Facebook is, campaigns are spending heavily. According to Facebook’s own figures, the Trump campaign already has spent $36.7 million on ads; the Biden campaign has spent $23.3 million.
Trump’s executive order, issued on May 28, targets a provision of the Communications Decency Act that gives social media companies immunity over third party content placed on their platforms. But it also protects them from litigation if their content moderation decisions are made in “good faith.”