Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 22

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blutoski said:
The FCC's commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Is this essentially Rosenworcel's resignation?
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Yeah, as I said on Facebook, I don't imagine she's got much longer in the US civil service. But you have to respect her speaking truth to power. There's no way she doesn't know she's slit her own throat with that release.
 
blutoski said:
Just to explain their thinking, from what I can tell:

These platforms were granted a legal immunity from being sued by users, with the understanding that they're just a tool for users to communicate with each other. Up to now, if somebody said, "I want to sue Twitter for something on their site," the DoJ would have to throw out the case.

So the idea is, let's see if we can put the fear of being the next Gawker into the platforms. At the administration's discretion, they can expose the platforms to trillion dollar lawsuits if they think the platform has gone beyond just policing for offensive content and actually inserted political bias.

And whether there's a lawsuit or not, the EO would forbid the federal government from advertising on a blacklisted 'biased' platform. That's billions of dollars of business at Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and others
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Twitter etc. are private entities. I don't think they could be sued for "political bias" any more than the NY Times, MSNBC, Fox News, Mother Jones, National Review, etc. Gawker was sued for publishing private sex tapes. And the DOJ doesn't sue anybody for political bias, and it wouldn't have anything to say about a civil suit by one private party against another.

The real issue is that if the media companies lose their identity as an analog of the phone company, they would be responsible for everything that appears on their sites, just as the NYT is. Anybody who is offended or aggrieved by anything anybody posted would be able to sue Twitter, not the poster, for libel, invasion of privacy and whatever other grounds their lawyers could come up with. In effect, Twitter, Facebook etc. would become publishers, legally liable for everything they publish. The other side is that if Congress tries to change the laws, court cases would go on for years, maybe decades. It took 10 years for the DOJ to break up Bell.

I think Jack Dorsey ought to call out Trump by banning him and all of his enablers and even the word "Trump" from his site. Nothing Trump could do could take effect before the election. I bet Orange Man would change his tune.
 
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As far as I can tell, the only reason for the executive order is that in any lawsuit against Twitter etc. Trump can use the White House lawyers instead of having to hire and pay them himself.
 
Dr.Sid said:
Rasism isn't Trump's main problem. Trump is dick in basically every aspect. He hates everyone, except himself. And if anything, he doesn't care about minorities. It's not something haunting him in sleepless nights. Twitter is.
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Trump was not my target. The persistent 30-40% of the populace that comprise his deplorable supporters are the risible and useless wreckage of humanity that need a goddamned good shock.
 
I think it will backfire grandly.

If Twitter are going to be held responsible for everything bad said about Trump on their platform, they will not want to attract a billion lawsuits. The subject of Trump, and all his accounts will simply be turned off. Post anything with the word "Trump" in it and it will vanish. Post anything pro- or anti-Trump and it will vanish. Twitter will be reduced to being static Tik-tok.

Fully justified too. They are not subject to First Amendment rules so they are not obliged to publish what they are told, or not publish what someone else wants. Like all newspapers, they can publish and be damned, or simply not publish. Their choice. And by far the easiest is to not publish.

There's likely to be an app (change) for that.
 
I don't think this is going to go anywhere. I think Trump has bitten off far more than he can chew with this one. Is this his 'end'? Nah. But I do think he's going to be roundly defeated on this particular issue.
 
Twitter can, and probably will, use this Order to claim that they cannot be held responsible for anything being posted on their platform, since the President told them to censor nothing.
 
When I read about the EO I wondered why there weren't any comments about it in this thread. Only then did I notice that it was well down my list of subscribed threads with no posts for a week. It appears the mods closed it and started a continuation thread on May 22nd, and I missed the link to the next one. So I've got 18 pages of posts to catch up on. I think I'll just skip to the end.
 
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blutoski said:
Is this true?
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Yes.

https://time.com/4808270/sean-spicer-donald-trump-twitter-statements/

When asked at a press briefing whether Trump’s tweets qualify as official statements on behalf of the White House, Spicer said that he “is the President of the United States, so they’re considered official statements by the President of the United States.”
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/14/doj-donald-trump-tweets-are-official-statements-of/

Justice Department lawyers qualified the president’s tweets in an eight-page submission entered in D.C. federal court Monday after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta asked the government earlier this month for clarification concerning Mr. Trump’s Twitter musings.

“The Court has asked, broadly, about the official status of the President’s tweets … asking the parties to ‘provide insight on … the President’s tweets and what they are, how official they are, are they statements of the White House and the President,’ ” Justice Department attorneys wrote Monday citing a Nov. 2 status conference hearing.

“In answer to the Court’s question, the government is treating the President’s statements to which plaintiffs point — whether by tweet, speech or interview — as official statements of the President of the United States,” the Justice Department responded.
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Specifically, Trump's been very comfortable deleting embarrassing tweets. Deleting official comms would be "But Her Emails" - I suspect the administration is adamant that this account contains personal tweets by a private citizen named Donald Trump, not government communications of somebody called The President Of The United States.
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Because Trump cares so very much about obeying rules, laws, and norms?
 
Trump Tweets

@Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is today criticizing Twitter. “We have a different policy than Twitter on this. I believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.” Did Twitter criticize Obama for his “you can keep your Dr.”?
 
Trump Tweets

MAIL-IN VOTING WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE. IT WILL ALSO LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS TRAGEDY BEFALL OUR NATION. BIG MAIL-IN VICTORY IN TEXAS COURT TODAY. CONGRATS!!!
 
Trump Tweets

I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
 
Stacyhs said:
Important information that could have, and should have, been given in that single forum post. Sorry, but your post sounds more like an excuse.
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Funny, because it seems to me like your posts have been excuses for why going off half-cocked based on something you heard third-hand from a stranger on the internet isn't something that you're at all culpable for. Is it the Onion's fault if someone posts a rant on Facebook triggered by believing one of their articles to be true?

And why would I need to make an excuse for participating in a joke? Posted to a board dedicated to critical thinking, no less.
 
Twitter added the following to Trump's Tweet about 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts'


This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.
https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/public-interest
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The tweet has been hidden behind the following statement with a 'View tweet' link put in its place.
 
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Norman Alexander said:
I think it will backfire grandly.

If Twitter are going to be held responsible for everything bad said about Trump on their platform, they will not want to attract a billion lawsuits. The subject of Trump, and all his accounts will simply be turned off. Post anything with the word "Trump" in it and it will vanish. Post anything pro- or anti-Trump and it will vanish. Twitter will be reduced to being static Tik-tok.
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CDA 230 was made in response to the successful lawsuit against Prodigy. In that lawsuit the court held Prodigy to be a publisher because it moderated its forums at all, and because it was legally a publisher it was found liable for defamatory content a user posted in its forums. If CDA 230 protections really were stripped from Twitter then the only way it could avoid liability would be to do no moderation whatsoever.

The question is: do judges have follow an executive order saying how they're supposed interpret a law passed by Congress? I'd think that an executive order wouldn't apply to the judicial branch, but IANAL.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Twitter added the following to Trump's Tweet about 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts'




The tweet has been hidden behind the following statement with a 'View tweet' link put in its place.
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Amazing. I can't imagine the chuckles in the twitter offices over that one.
 
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