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Joe Biden revokes Trump executive order against social media platforms

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: May 15, 2021, 05:47 PM IST
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A study published in the Journal of Democracy by Rachel Kleinfeld, an expert on troubled democracies, found that both Democrats and Republicans harboured high levels of “dehumanising thought”. 39 per cent of Democrats and 41 per cent of Republicans saw the other sight as “downright evil". 16 per cent of Democrats and 20 per cent of Republicans said their opponents were “like animals.” Photograph:(WION Web Team)

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Trump's executive order was issued after Twitter tagged his tweets having claims of widespread voter fraud in US Presidential Election 2020

US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) revoked an executive order by former President Donald Trump against social media platforms. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump had issued the order in 2020 to direct US regulators to limit liability protections enjoyed by the social media platforms.

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 Decency Act. It shields the companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

Trump's executive order was issued after Twitter tagged his tweets having claims of widespread voter fraud in US Presidential Election 2020. Trump had continued his claims of voter fraud even after US Supreme Court had rejected the assertions.

After Trump's posts following the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks, Twitter and Facebook barred Trump from posting on their sites, and the following day FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he would not act on Trump's request to limit social media liability protections.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter declined comment but referred to its initial statement about Trump's order, which called it "reactionary and politicized."

(With inputs from agencies)