WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday it will be a “big day” for social media companies and “FAIRNESS” as he was expected to issue an executive order aimed at the big tech firms.
White House officials said Wednesday that the president would sign an executive order targeting the the social media companies, but didn’t elaborate on the details.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump threatened to “strongly regulate” social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook or “close them down,” tweeting that Republicans feel that the companies are silencing conservative voices. In a follow-up tweet, he said they must “Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
The president’s threats came after Twitter, for the first time, added a fact check label on a pair of tweets from Trump on Tuesday with language that said that “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” and it directed people to a Twitter article titled “Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud,” along with a “What you need to know” section.
A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News on Tuesday that the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” The spokesperson added that the company rolled out a policy in May to combat misinformation, especially related to the coronavirus pandemic.
