Hours after Twitter put a warning label on his tweet that 'looting' will lead to 'shooting', US President Donald Trump on Friday alleged that the social media giant was not doing anything about the "lies and propaganda" by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. He alleged that Twitter was targeting Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States and demanded that the Congress should revoke Section 230, a Provision of the Communication Decency Act.
"Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
The US President has signed an executive order to review the federal law known as Section 230, which protects tech companies from being sued or held liable for most posts, photos, and videos shared by users after Twitter fact-checked one of his tweets on alleged fraud in postal ballots.
What is Section 230, the law that protects social media firms
Section 230 spares owners of "interactive computer service" from liability for anything posted by users on their sites. The propose of the law was to encourage the new types of communications and services when the era of the Internet had started.
The United States had enacted Section 230 in 1995 as part of the Communications Decency Act, a law to curb online pornography. While most of the Communications Decency Act was revoked over infringement on free speech, Section 230 was kept.
Section 230 protects any website that hosts content, which also includes the comment section of news outlets, video platforms like YouTube and social media companies like Twitter and Facebook from lawsuits over content posted by their users.
