Donald Trump Says He Would Shut Down Twitter ‘If It Were Legal,’ But Doesn’t Plan To Delete His Account
Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he would shut down Twitter “if it were legal” for him to do so, but said he still doesn’t have any plans to delete his own account.
The statement to reporters was part of the president’s growing war with the social media site, where he frequently sends political messages and attacks perceived enemies. This came after the platform refused the request of a grieving widower whose wife’s death was the center of a conspiracy theory spread by the president, then added the first-ever fact check to a Trump tweet. Trump has repeatedly attacked the company after it included a link to facts about mail-in voting that contradicted his claims.
Trump on Thursday unveiled a new executive order aimed at social media companies, and in doing so saying that he would shut down Twitter if he had the authority to do so.
Trump said he would shut down Twitter, if he could: “If it were legal, if it could be legally shut down, I would do it.” But Trump also told reporters he's not deleting his account.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 28, 2020
As the Associated Press reported, the executive order was “challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet.” Trump claimed that the fact checks on his tweets regarding mail-in voting — which both opponents and election experts said were not backed by any facts — amounted to political activism that should strip Twitter of protection from lawsuits for what is posted on its platform. He has also accused the site of banning or “shadowbanning” — a word meaning preventing a person’s tweets from being seen without telling them — prominent conservative voices.
According to the outlet, Twitter and Facebook have liability protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which treats them as “platforms” rather than “publishers” of the posts made by others
Trump said the order was meant to uphold freedom of speech.
“We’re fed up with it,” Trump said, claiming the move would uphold freedom of speech.
The president had previously claimed that Twitter was interfering in the 2020 presidential election by adding a fact check to his tweet.
The Associated Press reported that the White House had been planning to unveil this executive order in the past, but it was held over concerns that it could not withstand a legal challenge.
Trump’s campaign had joined the White House in condemning Twitter. This week, campaign manager Brad Parscale said that the platform had a “clear political bias” and said that the campaign had decided to pull all advertising from the site months ago. As the Associated Press noted, Twitter had already banned all political ads in November.
