Trump wants to shut down Twitter and national economic forecasts … what a day!
Trump looks for another distraction using the Twitter fact-check of his misinformation, hunting for some lawfare disruption, even as he withholds economic forecasts.
Can’t fact check anything like an economic downturn if you don’t have them. The White House will only release forecast information until it serves the reelection effort, just prior to the November election. They’re blaming COVID-19 for volatility, something, something.
And speaking of which, it seems a bit ironic to roll back a 1996 law in order to impose economic/legal penalties on information platforms because your “facts” got checked on Twitter.
Mask some things, unmask others. The Trump playbook is in reruns with more kayfabe like protecting free speech from… free speech.
Suppress facts, votes, and maybe democracy.
“if it were able to be legally shut down I would do it.”
JUST IN: Trump has signed an executive order designed to limit the legal protections that shield social media companies from liability for the content users post. https://t.co/qpwHNky4ib
— Axios (@axios) May 28, 2020
Because suppressing irresponsible free speech is exercising corporate and/or government speech… what? Trump wants to sue someone but wanting it in the worst way might want it in the worst way.
All @Jack has to do is suspend @realDonaldTrump so his @Potus account will be substituted for the next five months. Otherwise Trump can go to the platform, Parler. Imagine all the anti-government folks over there, replete with air syringes.
“We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers,”
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that he said calls for the Federal Communications Commission to revisit Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act of 1996, which provides websites immunity from liability for content users post on their platforms.The executive order came in response to Twitter, for the first time, adding a fact-check label on a pair of Trump’s tweets earlier this week. The fact-check included a link directing users to a page with news reports debunking the tweets, in which Trump claimed there was “NO WAY” an election with boosted mail-in voting would be legitimate.
A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News on Tuesday the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” The spokesperson added the company rolled out a policy in May to combat misinformation.
With Attorney General William Barr standing alongside him, Trump said he was taking action against what he deemed one of the greatest threats to free speech.
“We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly, and you know what’s going on as well as anybody,” Trump said. “It’s not good.”
“They’ve had unchecked power to censure, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Trump added.
[…]
Trump spent days fuming over the fact check, saying Thursday it’s “so ridiculous” for Twitter to make the case that mail-in ballots aren’t subject to fraud.
“As far as I’m concerned but I’d have to go through a legal process,” Trump said, adding, “if it were able to be legally shut down I would do it.”
3. There are reports that the EO involves this statute: https://t.co/KGH8DQda5C
— Tim Hogan 浩勤 (@TimInHonolulu) May 28, 2020
This is a grant of immunity to take down Trump's hate speech. I think he and his island of misfit @whitehouse attorneys will regret touching this one.
"This is not how the Constitution works," said one expert. "The First Amendment protects Twitter from Trump, it does not protect Trump from Twitter."#MangoMussolinihttps://t.co/eSIpVPkE0O
— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) May 28, 2020
twitter.com/DigitalTrends/status/1266062933269704704?ref_src=twsrc^tfw(opens in a new tab)
White House officials have decided not to release updated economic projections this summer, opting against publishing forecasts that would almost certainly codify an administration assessment that the coronavirus pandemic has led to a severe economic downturn, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.The White House is supposed to unveil a federal budget proposal every February and then typically provides a “mid-session review” in July or August with updated projections on economic trends such as unemployment, inflation and economic growth.Budget experts said they were not aware of any previous White House opting against providing forecasts in this “mid-session review” document in any other year since at least the 1970s.
White House is throwing up its hands and opting not to provide routine mid-year economic forecast. Banks and other major companies don't have that luxury and seem to manage https://t.co/kWD5ECbtfx
— Steve Daniels (@stevedaniels27) May 28, 2020
The document would be slated for publication just a few months before the November elections.
“It gets them off the hook for having to say what the economic outlook looks like,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who served as an economic adviser to the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.).
