Trump’s social-media crackdown starts looking like government coercion with a flag on it
After signing an executive order aimed at punishing social platforms for moderating his posts, Trump kept the fight going on May 30 as critics described the move as a transparently political attempt to bend federal power to a grievance about fact-checking and moderation. The White House called it free speech. The response from civil-liberties advocates was that it looked more like the government trying to intimidate private companies into giving Trump special treatment.
First recorded May 30, 2020·Meaningfully updated May 30, 2020
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Trump’s social-media crackdown starts looking like government coercion with a flag on it
After signing an executive order aimed at punishing social platforms for moderating his posts, Trump kept the fight going on May 30 as critics described the move as a transparently political attempt to bend federal power to a grievance about fact-checking and moderation. The White House called it free speech. The response from civil-liberties advocates was that it looked more like the government trying to intimidate private companies into giving Trump special treatment.
After signing an executive order aimed at punishing social platforms for moderating his posts, Trump kept the fight going on May 30 as critics described the move as a transparently political attempt to bend federal power to a grievance about fact-checking and moderation. The White House called it free speech. The response from civil-liberties advocates was that it looked more like the government trying to intimidate…
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