TEHRAN, 29 May_President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday seeking to strip social media giants like Twitter of legal immunity for content posted by users.
If this was enacted, the likes of Twitter and Facebook would become open to lawsuits and greatly increased government regulation.
Trump -- angered this week after Twitter tagged one of his tweets for the first time with a fact-check notice -- said regulation was needed because the companies are no longer neutral forums but engaging in "political activism."
According to Trump, such platforms have "unchecked power to censor, restrict... virtually any form of communication between private citizens."
"We can't let that happen," he said, "especially when they go about doing what they're doing because they're doing things incorrectly, they have points of view."
The president's ire appeared especially focused on fact-checking services that big social media platforms have added in an effort to weed out rampant disinformation and so-called "fake news."
This, he said, made the companies into traditional publishers, therefore liable for whatever material they host.
"The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress... editorial decisions pure and simple," he said.
"In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint and I think we can say that about others also, whether you're looking at Google, whether you're looking at Facebook, perhaps others."
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