White House is drafting an executive order to combat tech company censorship.

Twitter. Politico. 

The White House is drafting an executive order to combat tech party censorship of conservatives. Politico. President Trump promised action after a social media summit and many reports of censorship of conservatives on Twitter, Facebook and other media sites. None of the sources cited by Politico gave any details of what the order would do and President Trump is limited by the 1st Amendment and 1996 Communications Decency Act section 230, that allows tech companies to not be liable for what users post. One option would be to use rules on federal contractors to punish these tech companies. President Obama did something similar in 2014 for LGBT rights and President Trump could do something similar. 

My Comment:

This story comes after yet another incident of anti-conservative censorship. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's election Twitter account just got locked, along with several other conservatives. Their crime? Posting video showing liberal activists making death threats at his house. Censoring the Senate Majority leader who is documenting death threats against him is so far beyond the pale that something needs to be done. 

An executive order will likely be limited in nature. There is only so much President Trump can do with an executive order. For real change to happen he needs congress on his side, and that is not going to happen with the Democrats in control. It was a mistake to not deal with this problem before the 2018 midterms as if the GOP had made it a priority they may have actually won in 2018. 

If they don't do anything at any level it's one of the few ways President Trump could lose in 2020. If Mitch McConnell's account can be locked, so can anyone else's, including the President of the United States. Blocking and banning conservatives would make it difficult to get out the vote. I also think that social media and the various memes were a major reason why President Trump won in the first place but if they cut that off it may be the end of President Trump's run. 

I'm not sure what President Trump can do though. He can use federal contractor regulations to punish the tech companies but that might take too long and I'm not 100% sure how that would work. Breaking up the tech companies for anti-trust violations might help as well, but that process will take years and will likely just spread the problem around. 

At the very least though it at least shows that President Trump is listening to his constituents. Conservatives have seen many of their friends and followers deleted from the big tech company websites and if things continue the way they are going it won't be possible to participate in online activity at all. That has to change and the sooner something happens the better.