WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced today that the agency will issue rules deciding when website operators’ moderation practices over third-party content leaves them exposed to potential legal liability, following Donald Trump’s directives on his May 28 Executive Order.
Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship” called for the FCC to propose regulations for Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act and asked the FCC to "examine whether actions related to the editing of content by social media companies should potentially lead to the firms forfeiting their protections under Section 230."
Today, Pai emailed a statement to inform that “the FCC will begin a rulemaking to ‘clarify’ the meaning of a law that gives broad legal immunity to social media companies for their handling of users’ posts,” Bloomberg News reports.
“Many advance an overly broad interpretation that in some cases shields social media companies from consumer protection laws,” Pai wrote, in a statement that echoes the criticisms of Section 230 by Justice Clarence Thomas that were attached to a Supreme Court decision not to hear a case this week.
“Social media companies have a First Amendment right to free speech,” Pai said, “but they do not have a First Amendment right to a special immunity denied to other media outlets, such as newspapers and broadcasters.”
Trump has been tweeting regularly, in all caps, “REPEAL SECTION 230!,” most recently yesterday, after a tweet complaining about Facebook and Twitter news content moderation.
Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term.