Ahh, another executive order signed by a U.S. President. Folks, these are illegal, they essentially have no power, they are null and void. The President is not a dictator, at least, he is not supposed to be.
Trump signed the order as he is upset with Twitter primarily for issuing a fact-checker on some of his recent tweets. That is another story altogether.
Google criticized the executive order stating,
“Undermining Section 230 in this way would hurt America’s economy and its global leadership on internet freedom.”
I find that ironic since Google also limits free speech by removing content they disagree with. That has happened time and time again.
So what is Section 230?
Section 230
This might help us understand.
Section 230 says that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” (47 U.S.C. § 230). In other words, online intermediaries that host or republish speech are protected against a range of laws that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Essentially, we are told Section 230 has enabled websites like YouTube, Google, Craigslist, Yelp, and so on to host user-generated content, and not be held liable for that user-generated content, ie: posts, comments, etc.
The same goes for bloggers, and comments on any blog. I am not responsible from the government’s perspective if you post some derogatory comment on this site.
However, our web host may very well terminate our service and shut down our blog.
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You see the difference?
Facebook, Google, etc, own their servers and network, therefore, they cannot be shut down by a host, so they have no bounds.
The take away then is, social media has no obligation to remove any speech whatsoever as they cannot be held liable for it. No matter what the speech is. That is actually a good thing. However, we do not need Section 230 for that, the Second Amendment already grants us these rights.
So all this talk about social media helping people win elections and so on is horse business. In the end, social media is a business and they can serve whoever they want. They can publish or delete whatever they want.
Now if they turn one-sided as they have, then you have ever right to stop using their platform. You have ever right to stop using the service and supporting it through ad clicks, and so on. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are not free, it costs someone somewhere. People click ads which leads to sales which pads the big boys pocketbook. If you stop using their service, they dry up and wither away like yesterday’s news.
If you do not like their politics, then stop using the service. If you do not do that, then stop complaining about it. If you complain without action, you are not much good to the cause are you?
Another Reason Why Executive Orders Are Wrong
Let’s close this with a simple thought on Trump’s latest executive order. It does not matter how good any executive order sounds. We The People should never support any illegal order.
Maybe today we have an executive order we like, but tomorrow we have another President signing executive orders we do not like. That is why this nation is supposed to be ruled by the Constitution, not by the whims of men.