OnPolitics: The great social media showdown of 2020

Friday, May 29

President Donald Trump holds up a copy of the New York Post as speaks before signing an executive order aimed at curbing protections for social media giants, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The great social media showdown of 2020

The president has beef with his favored social media platform.

Should social media platforms fact check political leaders and their statements?

That's the question at the crux of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump Thursday.

The order was "designed - in theory - to make it easier to sue social media companies such as Twitter," USA TODAY White House reporters David Jackson and John Fritze reported.

"While the order calls for changes in regulations that shield social media companies from legal liability, the Trump administration cannot do that on its own," Jackson and Fritze reported. Those changes would have to be made by independent agencies and, ultimately, the courts.

How did we get here?

On Tuesday, the president tweeted about mail-in ballots, and Twitter added a "fact check" label to two of those tweets. Trump went on to slam Twitter as "stifling FREE SPEECH." He said Republicans feel that social media platforms silence conservative voices and "We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."

Obviously social media platforms have different ways of handling misinformation. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pushed back against the president, saying adding the fact check label "does not make us an 'arbiter of truth.'"

Thursday night, Twitter blocked a Tweet from Trump about the Minneapolis protests, adding this disclaimer and making people click to see the tweet, plus linking to its policy: "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

And that brings us to Friday's executive order. But what does it mean? Former federal prosecutor and law professor Barb McQuade said this: "The bottom line is that immunity from defamation lawsuits for service providers cannot be changed without legislation from Congress."

What else happened this week? Here's a look:

•	Texas' top court said coronavirus isn't a reason to expand vote-by-mail.
•	'Falsely masculine': Biden hits Trump over face masks as president calls them 'politically correct'
•	Rep. Steve King is fighting for his political life in Iowa.
•	The House passed a bill that loosens rules on PPP small business loans.