Posted May 29, 2020

President Trump’s today issued an Executive Order to address the issue of “Online Censorship” by Social Media “Big Tech” companies. In our opinion, this is a great first step in enforcing “fairness” in Social Media content moderation.

Section 230 of Communication Decency Act, also known as “Internet Law” provides a framework for Internet operation granting broad immunity to platforms (such as Twitter) that curate and moderate content from lawsuits. This protection is predicated on tech platforms operating in “good faith” failing which these entities lose their “legal immunity” making them open to litigation.

However, in recent times, we see these platforms censor opinions with which they disagree against President Trump, Conservative and American viewpoint while promoting Anti-US (Chinese) and Liberal Viewpoints with impunity. This “one sided censorship” by Twitter is an instance of exercising a dangerous power by invoking inconsistent, irrational, and groundless justifications to censor or otherwise punish Americans’ speech here at home. Additionally, we also totally concur with the order faulting Google for helping the Chinese government surveil its citizens; Twitter for spreading Chinese propaganda; and Facebook for profiting from Chinese advertising. Hence, it our opinion that social media companies like Twitter are not adhering to this “good faith” standard for Conservative viewpoint whose content moderation needs to be reviewed and addressed.

Hence, this Executive Order has now categorized Big Tech (Twitter) as a “publisher” and removed their legal protections, which and can now be held accountable as a publisher for “censoring” US Pro-National and Conservative viewpoints. This in turn makes it a lot easier, for conservatives (or their proxies) to sue Twitter for damages, defamation etc. for (a) “censoring’ their posts or (b) posting “inaccurate” Liberal Posts since they are now in the Publishing Business without Section 230 “Platform” protections.

Perhaps it is time Twitter and others realize that they are now in the “publishing business” opening them up to litigation OR compromise to become more “neutral” by sticking to being a “platform” with legal protections? Unless this is settled amicably, this “distraction” will be very “counter-productive” to their innovation and profitability since their Legal departments will be busy in coming months probably appealing this EO, being the defendant on lawsuits from different groups / PACs for content “curation” bias on their platform along with a need for increased spending for outside Legal counsel and K St Lobbyists in Washington DC.

I work with Silicon Valley Big Tech Companies and executives closely and I see this “bias” first hand all the way to the top in many organizations against Conservatives, GOP and POTUS along with support for Global (read Anti-USA) causes. Hence, this evident bias does not surprise me and I see this reflected in Twitter and other “big tech” companies content moderation policies among other things. It is our hope that as a result of this Executive Order these platforms will be more cautious / balanced when curating / moderating Conservative viewpoints during the coming election cycle so that they do not stifle “diversity of thought” among the American Public.

Interesting times indeed – let the games begin!