It took one tweet getting fact-checked for Donald Trump to go full authoritarian mode and call for the social media giant to be shut down.
According to Reuter reporter Jeff Mason, Trump told him that if it were legal, he’d shut down Twitter altogether.
“Trump says if Twitter were not honorable he would shut it down if that were legally possible,” Mason tweeted
Trump says if Twitter were not honorable he would shut it down if that were legally possible pic.twitter.com/7m1wcmEYej
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) May 28, 2020
According to experts who have seen Trump’s executive order draft, “Trump’s attempt to curb what he claims is social media censorship is a political gambit and will not change the legal obligations of companies like Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc.”
As Daphne Keller, an expert on internet law at Stanford University, points out, “The draft is 95% political theater – rhetoric without legal foundation, and without legal impact.”
