Twitter has applied fact-checks and a warning label to a few of President Donald Trump's tweets this week. The social media company claims that the select Trump tweets violated its rules against "glorifying violence" and making false claims. Trump signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to reduce the power of social media platforms by changing a 1996 law called the Communications Decency Act, Section 230.
Tech writer Andy Ihnatko spoke with Boston Public Radio on Friday about Trump's move to get more governmental control over social media services.
"Trump is attempting to put a lot of limitations on what Section 230 is," Ihnatko said. "He's saying that social media companies are using their power under Section 230 to manipulate communication, when there's been no demonstration of any kind that that's ever, ever happened."
Trump is trying to personally dictacte what "fairness" is, Ihnatko said.
"He wants the ability to remove all of those protections and essentially destroy these underpinnings that allow us all to communicate freely on the internet," he said. "Without Section 230, and the shielding from liability that it provides, anytime that anybody posts something on the internet that offends somebody, they can threaten huge lawsuits."
