US President Joe Biden revokes Donald Trump orders on social media

US President Biden revoked an executive order by former President Donald Trump that had directed regulators to limit liability protections for social media companies.

 

The White House released an order by Biden revoking several of Trump's executive orders. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

The Center for Democracy and Technology, which had sued to block Trump's May 2020 order, praised Biden's reversal, arguing Trump's order "was an attempt to use threats of retaliation to coerce social media companies into allowing disinformation and hateful speech to go unchecked."

 

Trump unsuccessfully demanded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set new rules to limit protections for social media firms under the 1996 Communications Act. It shields the companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

 

Trump, who made his anger with social media companies a campaign theme, issued his order after Twitter tagged his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of mail-in voting fraud with a warning to readers.

 

After Trump's posts following the Capitol attacks, Twitter and Facebook barred Trump from posting on their sites, and the following day FCC Chairman said he would not act on Trump's request to limit social media liability protections.