Trump doubles down on regulation war with Twitter

President Trump on Friday extended his criticism of Twitter's new "fact-check" policy on which he appears to be a primary target.  

The president a day earlier signed an executive order that attempts to limit Twitter's legal protection in posting content and allows regulators to declare social media platforms are censoring free speech by deleting users' posts or accounts.

Also on Friday, the president tweeted that Twitter's policy targets: "Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States," but does nothing to prevent misinformation being spread by accounts affiliated with "China or the Radical Left Democrat Party." 

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The president's executive order will likely face a court challenge. But Trump has said he is prepared to fight for the regulation of Twitter, which he thinks is unfairly targeting certain political groups.

"What about all of the lies and fraudulent statements made by Adam Schiff, and so many others, on the Russian With Hunt Plus, Plus, Plus? What about China's propaganda?" tweeted Trump, referring to the California Democrat who help lead the Democratic-controlled House's probe into whether the 2016 Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia. 

Another thing the president has suggested in the wake of Twitter's new policy repealing Section 230 on the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects a web host from legal claims resulting from hosting third-party information.

Trump's 2020 Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, has also advocated for such a change. 

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Revoking Section 230 has complex legal connotations and would almost certainly provoke a robust debate among lawmakers, but in brief, the section alleviates the legal responsibility of companies like Twitter and Facebook from being held liable for the language of its users, similarly to how a newspaper is not legally responsible for the language used in its comments section.