WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — President Donald Trump announced he’s rolling out an executive order on social media outlets that he calls politically biased.
But Democrats say the move is a distraction from the president’s COVID-19 response.
“They’ve had unchecked power to censor, edit, restrict, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication,” President Trump said. .
On Thursday President Trump said social media platforms that engage in political bias and censorship will lose federal liability protection.
This comes after Twitter fact-checked the president’s tweet earlier this week.
“What they choose to fact check and what they choose to promote is nothing more than political activism,” he said.
Republican Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) says Twitter’s head of integrity, who is responsible for fact-checking the president, has a history of politically biased tweets himself.
Once likening the Trump administration to Nazis.
“My first concern with Twitter would be about who they have doing the fact check,” Rep. McCarthy said. “I’m not quite sure that’s the person I would have of being the individual in charge of twitter determining whether the facts are correct.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she thinks social media outlets aren’t doing enough to regulate misinformation, especially when it comes from the president.
“They still wont take off the misrepresentations the president is putting out there,” Rep. Pelosi said. “Their business model is to make money at the expense of the truth and the facts.”
But while Pelosi was critical of social media outlets, she also said the president rolling out this executive order, especially during a pandemic, is tone deaf.
“What the President is doing is silly. It’s silly. Let’s say this, it’s a distraction,” she said.
President Trump said legislation may soon follow his executive order.
