(AmericanProsperity.com) – On Tuesday, Twitter decided to get into the editorializing game and branded some tweets by President Trump with a fact-check warning. To date, no fact checks by Twitter have been triggered on posts created by Trump’s opponents. That caused Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) to say Twitter may no longer need the immunity offered to them by the federal government.
The law still protects social media companies like @Twitter because they are considered forums not publishers.
But if they have now decided to exercise an editorial role like a publisher then they should no longer be shielded from liability & treated as publishers under the law.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 27, 2020
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996 was designed to protect free speech on the internet and provide legal immunity to private companies who offered a forum, or platform, for varying views.
The issue for Rubio and Hawley is Twitter is moving away from being a platform that provides a forum for people to share posts. Instead, it seems interested in becoming a publisher with the discretion to edit political posts.
While some say Twitter didn’t actually do the fact check, the company can determine who does. That entity then labeled the tweet as not factual. On Tuesday, Twitter used the Washington Post, CNN, and other liberal media to fact-check Trump’s tweet regarding mail-in voting.
This amounts to an editorial decision to advocate for a perspective. How can we allow this to continue?
~Here’s to Your Prosperity!
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