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posted by chromas on Friday May 29 2020, @02:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-minutes-hate dept.

Leaked draft details Trump's likely attack on technology giants:

The Trump Administration is putting the final touches on a sweeping executive order designed to punish online platforms for perceived anti-conservative bias. Legal scholar Kate Klonick obtained a draft of the document and posted it online late Wednesday night.

[...] The document claims that online platforms have been "flagging content as inappropriate even though it does not violate any stated terms of service, making unannounced and unexplained changes to policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints, and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse."

The order then lays out several specific policy initiatives that will purportedly promote "free and open debate on the Internet."

First up is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

[...] Trump's draft executive order would ask the Federal Communications Commission to clarify Section 230—specifically a provision shielding companies from liability when they remove objectionable content.

[...] Next, the executive order directs federal agencies to review their ad spending to ensure that no ad dollars go to online platforms that "violate free speech principles."

Another provision asks the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether online platforms are restricting speech "in ways that do not align with those entities' public representations about those practices"—in other words, whether the companies' actual content moderation practices are consistent with their terms of service. The executive order suggests that an inconsistency between policy and practice could constitute an "unfair and deceptive practice" under consumer protection laws.

Trump would also ask the FTC to consider whether large online platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become so big that they've effectively become "the modern public square"—and hence governed by the First Amendment.

[...] Finally, the order directs US Attorney General William Barr to organize a working group of state attorneys general to consider whether online platforms' policies violated state consumer protection laws.

[Ed Note - The following links have been added]

Follow Up Article: Trump is desperate to punish Big Tech but has no good way to do it

The Executive Order: Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday May 29 2020, @03:17PM (30 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 29 2020, @03:17PM (#1000560) Journal

    It sounds like the way around this is to have terms of service that say something like
    "We can remove anything that our lawyers find objectionable, or which we feel might possibly open us up to a law suit"
    That would let them remove anything they felt like.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM (#1000609)

    Haven't you read any terms of service? They all say basically that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:17PM (#1000732)

      Hey, that's SN's policy, even though they do not even have a lawyer! Many an aristarchus sub has fallen by that broad axe!

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM (#1000611)

    Actually, if twitter did follow its terms of service the end result is that Trump would be flagged a lot more than just the 3 times hes has been flagged so far this week.

    If there was not a section 230 protection for twitter, Trump would have been booted already. After all, without it, The widower of the woman who died in Joe Scarborough's office would be suing them already.

    Of course, if Trump's version of reality was anything near a normal person's he would be wary of what he wishes for, just in case it happens.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday May 29 2020, @05:01PM (#1000612) Journal

    "We can remove anything that our lawyers find objectionable, or which we feel might possibly open us up to a law suit"

    Which is exactly what their TOS already says.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Friday May 29 2020, @05:34PM (24 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 29 2020, @05:34PM (#1000637)

    We can remove anything that our lawyers find objectionable

    Illegal. Bake the cake, bigot, wax the balls, bigot, and our private bus company says certain people have to sit in the back none of that is allowed anymore. Since the 1960s its not legal to act on finding anything objectionable.

    we feel might possibly open us up to a law suit

    That's kinda the entire point of section 230 protection. Don't act like a carefully edited propaganda operation, then you can't be lawsuited to death.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:50PM (23 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:50PM (#1000650)

      The bigot didn't have to bake the cake with a gay message on it but also can't deny service to someone just because they are gay, so their personal freedom of religion was protected from the anti-discrimination law. Why are you complaining again?

      You're just a whiny little bitch who can't handle being called out for your bigotry. Waaah waaaah muh dumbfrees!

      • (Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Friday May 29 2020, @06:04PM (1 child)

        by hemocyanin (186) on Friday May 29 2020, @06:04PM (#1000660) Journal

        Perhaps his point was that Freedom does get applied to private business in certain contexts. Maybe it's time we do that to communications monopolies of all types.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @06:50PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @06:50PM (#1000687)

          They are not monopolies. What happened to vote with your wallet? Or build your own?

          What about verified account flair? I say Twitter is violating my rights by giving Trump's account extra flair and legitimacy, I PROTEST!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:35PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:35PM (#1000741)

        >didn't have to bake the cake with a gay message on it but also can't deny service to someone just because they are gay

        The bakery offered to sell a cake to the couple just not a wedding cake for a gay marriage. They were not denying service to someone just because they were gay. They were denying a specific service for a specific use. Courts ended up siding with the bakers.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:15AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:15AM (#1000954)

          They were denying a specific service for a specific use.

          A "gay" use. Thank goodness it was not a Black wedding! Or even worse, a wedding of Miscegenation!! Oh, these dumb fuck stupid conservatives have so many fucking things they are afraid of! Confusion of the castes? Women having lines of credit, with no man in control! Oh, lordy! Time to Nuke Colorado Springs from orbit, only way to be sure.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:18AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:18AM (#1000955)

            Every time, after the decision, that I pass through their town, I visit this bakery, on the pretext of ordering the Halillujah Jesus cake, but I ask for the tour of the actual bakery, and when walking through, when the owners are not looking, I spit into the batter mixer. So, if you have had cake from these bigots, a little of me has gotten into you!!!

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 29 2020, @09:16PM (17 children)

        by Bot (3902) on Friday May 29 2020, @09:16PM (#1000772) Journal

        >also can't deny service to someone just because they are gay
        they were denied any cake or a wedding cake?

        baking a wedding cake for gays is insulting. It is less grave but similar to asking a doctor to perform an abortion, which is the exact opposite of his job. Personally I would have baked the cake, asked for double the price, and baked a second identical cake with some leviticus on it.

        --
        Account abandoned.
        • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 29 2020, @09:21PM (11 children)

          by Bot (3902) on Friday May 29 2020, @09:21PM (#1000774) Journal

          >baking a wedding cake for gays is insulting.
          in case it is misread, I said "insulting" and not "offensive", and I said "baking" and not "asking to bake", in practice it is the baker who insults his own religion.

          --
          Account abandoned.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @09:28PM (10 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @09:28PM (#1000781)

            Go on, let your prejudice out. Don't hold back now. Got any true feelings on people from specific countries? Perhaps Somalians? Or Cambodians? Maybe the Chinese right now?

            How about women? What is their purpose here on Earth? Do you think it would be better if they stayed at home to care for kids, or participated in the workforce?

            Since you are a bot I'll finish with "sudo make me a good sandwich"

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:40AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:40AM (#1000856)

              Ferkin Dagos!

            • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 31 2020, @10:30AM (4 children)

              by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 31 2020, @10:30AM (#1001313) Journal

              Mom said not to reply to AC dirty submonkeys.

              --
              Account abandoned.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:15PM (3 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:15PM (#1001402)

                Yet you replied twice, 2nd time with more stupid than usual. Did someone spill coffee on your fatherboard??

                • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:05PM (2 children)

                  by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:05PM (#1001500) Journal

                  Actually the second comment is meant for another poster. Difficult to tell subhumans apart.

                  --
                  Account abandoned.
                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:55PM (1 child)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:55PM (#1001512)

                    Well if you weren't a stupid bot you'd probably be better at such complex tasks. Time for an upgrade? Simple hierarchical threads should be easier for a bot. Go do some captcha training or something.

                    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:53AM

                      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:53AM (#1001647)

                      Catholic Italian bot. No Hierarchial threads, just the Pontifex Maximus, ad Glorificum Holem MDC.

            • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 31 2020, @10:51AM (3 children)

              by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 31 2020, @10:51AM (#1001315) Journal

              LOL then how does your finely trained logic mind deals with the fact that I don't go snuffing out faggots in the name of the Bible, else I would probably have been caught already?

              Answer, because you didn't remember all of the scripture?

              Mt 19:

              7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

              8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

              9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

              10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

              11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

              12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

              The cake with some bible on it would REMIND how grave some behavior was considered. When offspring was LITERALLY wealth, homosexuality was LITERALLY death. How do you punish who promote death, huh? But ofc judging from the modern time after being throughly imbibed with anti believer propaganda might justify your position.

              Yeah saturday is the seventh day, sunday is the first day, monday is the second day of the week. Sun 1st moon 2nd. Makes sense to celebrate on the day Jesus proved to be the Son? Yes. Can you go to mass on Saturday instead? yes too. No probs here, you might want an Adventist for this.

              --
              Account abandoned.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @08:49PM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @08:49PM (#1001496)

                Is this why you idiots keep saying you and people like Trump are not racist? Unless they literally murder someone they can't be rzcist?

                Daaaamn you're fucked in the head.

                • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:10PM (1 child)

                  by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:10PM (#1001501) Journal

                  Trump is pro Israel and Israel is not merely racist, but based on racism. I am not referring to apartheid towards arabs, I am referring to antisemitism as the basis for their identity.
                  So I guess Trump is hyper-racist. You progs, are classists, so morally undistinguishable from racists. Your very own comments leaks your classism.

                  --
                  Account abandoned.
                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @01:17AM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @01:17AM (#1001564)

                    You're down to ad-homs, good times.

        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:41AM (4 children)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:41AM (#1000857) Journal

          Man, I hope you're joking (but I know you're not).

          Numbers 5 specifically includes a ritual that causes an abortion if a man thinks his wife is cheating. Nowhere in the Bible does harming a pregnant woman such that she miscarries come with the penalties associated with murder.

          As to Leviticus, I hope like the Hell you're going to if you're being selective here that you never eat shrimp, wear mixed-fabric garments, work on the Sabbath (which is SATURDAY, not Sunday!), or scarf a bacon cheeseburger. Because Leviticus mentions all these, with the same level of approbation for all of them. And in case you're going to try and quote Paul, remember that Jesus himself says in Mt. 5:17-20 that the Mosaic Law is still binding on Christians.

          Don't belch Romans 1 out of context at me, either: read with the surrounding verses, that little episode says God actually *made people gay* for not kissing his ass. Yes, I did ALL the above from memory.

          You don't know your own Scripture. You're so full of shit the whites of your eyes have gone brown.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Saturday May 30 2020, @02:33AM (1 child)

            by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday May 30 2020, @02:33AM (#1000882) Journal

            You forgot the link: http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/ [godhatesshrimp.com]

            • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:38AM

              by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:38AM (#1000902) Journal

              LOL, I completely forgot about that site!

              But on a more serious note, Bot there is just going to ignore what was pointed out to him. He doesn't really believe, at least, not what he claims he does. At the end of the day he believes in the contents of his mind, such as it is, and that is his God. He's a Catholic fanatic because it suits the combination of geography (he lives in Italy), mental pathology, and bizarre philosophical naivete that characterizes him as a person.

              ...if he is at all correct in his theology, he is going to be in for a very unpleasant, blistering hot, sulphurous surprise when he dies.

              --
              I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Bot on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:13PM (1 child)

            by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 31 2020, @09:13PM (#1001502) Journal

            Let's see if the filter lets me repost...

            LOL then how does your finely trained logic mind deals with the fact that I don't go snuffing out faggots in the name of the Bible, else I would probably have been caught already?

            Answer, because you didn't remember all of the scripture?

            Mt 19:

            7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

            8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

            9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

            10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

            11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

            12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

            The cake with some bible on it would REMIND how grave some behavior was considered. When offspring was LITERALLY wealth, homosexuality was LITERALLY death. How do you punish who promote death, huh? But ofc judging from the modern time after being throughly imbibed with anti believer propaganda might justify your position.

            Yeah saturday is the seventh day, sunday is the first day, monday is the second day of the week. Sun 1st moon 2nd. Makes sense to celebrate on the day Jesus proved to be the Son? Yes. Can you go to mass on Saturday instead? yes too. No probs here, you might want an Adventist for this.

            --
            Account abandoned.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:03AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:03AM (#1001633)

              Yeah, Jesus said no one should get married, can't forget about Luke 20:34-35:

              And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.

              Guess real Christians can't make wedding cakes for anybody.