Facebook is sounding a censorship alarm in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to place new restrictions on social media companies.
In a statement, the social network said the order attempts to limit Section 230 — a 1996 statute that insulates platform holders from legal reprisals based on the things users say and do online— and would only lead to more censorship, Engadget reported.
“Facebook is a platform for diverse views. We believe in protecting freedom of expression on our services, while protecting our community from harmful content including content designed to stop voters from exercising their right to vote,” the statement read, the tech site reported.
“Those rules apply to everybody. Repealing or limiting section 230 will have the opposite effect. It will restrict more speech online, not less. By exposing companies to potential liability for everything that billions of people around the world say, this would penalize companies that choose to allow controversial speech and encourage platforms to censor anything that might offend anyone.”
In an interview with Fox News, Mark Zuckerberg said he didn’t believe it was the “right reflex” to combat censorship with more censorship.
“In general, I think a government choosing to censor a platform because they’re worried about censorship doesn’t exactly strike me as the right reflex there,” he told Fox News.
According to Engadget, experts think the executive order is likely unenforceable and at odds with the First Amendment.
Twitter called the executive order “reactionary and politicized.”
“Section 230 protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it’s underpinned by democratic values,” the company’s tweeted statement declared. “Attempts to unilaterally erode it threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has defended the choice to fact-check Trump’s tweets— which triggered the executive order — asserting: “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves.”
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