After US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday seeking to strip major social media outlets such as Twitter from their legal immunity in relation to content and publishing, many questioned the legal basis for such a decision.
If this law goes into effect, Twitter and Facebook will face legal responsibility and increased government regulations.
The American president, who angered him this week and branded one of his tweets as untrustworthy, said that there is a need for regulation because these companies are no longer neutral forums but engage in "political activities."
Trump based his executive decision on Section 230 of US law, which is "transparency of communication across platforms," which could explain by his decision that these platforms target "American conservatives" and thus limit their freedom of expression in cases of concern to them.
When signing the executive order, he said, "This decision aims to reduce the immunity of social media sites against legal prosecution," explaining that he signed the executive order to "protect the freedom of expression of the American people."
A White House spokeswoman said on Thursday that Twitter "showed bias against President Trump", while not exercising control over China."
For his part, US Attorney General Bill Barr stated that the Trump administration is preparing legislation to regulate the work of social media.
On Wednesday, Trump had threatened to organize or shut down social media companies, after the Twitter threat, which could mean restricting his account if "offenses" are repeated.
The US president, without providing any evidence, reiterated his accusations of social media platforms of bias via two tweets, saying: "Republicans feel that social media platforms are working to silence the voices of conservatives completely." He tweeted: "We will organize them strongly or we will close them before we allow them to happen."
"Twitter is interfering in the 2020 presidential election," Trump said in a previous tweet on his favorite platform to connect with the world, adding, "As a president, I will not be allowed to do so."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commented on Trump's threats, saying that censorship of a platform would not be the "right response" by the government.
He said in an interview with "Fox News": "I must first understand what they actually intend to do, but I generally think that the government’s imposition of censorship on a platform, because it is concerned about the censorship that this platform may impose, is not a correct reaction."
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