WASHINGTON: A group representing major internet companies including Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject a Trump administration bid to narrow the ability of social media companies to remove objectionable content.
The Consumer Technology Association, which represents companies like IBM , Microsoft and Sony, also blasted the effort, saying it would"make compliance all but impossible". FCC Chairman Ajit Pai dismissed calls from the two Democrats on the agency's five-member commission to reject the petition without public comment.President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department to file the petition after Twitter Inc in May warned readers to fact-check his posts about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting.
The petition asks the FCC to limit protections for social media companies under Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.