In an unprecedented move by the head honchos of social media, President Donald Trump had several posts on his Twitter account slapped with "fact check" disclaimer labels.
When internet companies were in their infancy back in the 1990s, Congress, via legislation, provided them with immunity from certain civil lawsuits in order to encourage the development of "platforms," i.e., digital places for users to share user-created content.
Similar to bookstores that are not in the business of creating, editing, or publishing the material contained on the shelves of their stores, companies such as Twitter were granted special protection from lawsuits so that digital platforms that merely host media content created by third parties (their users) would be able to operate unhindered by the threat of legal action.
Companies with very large social media platforms have been acting as if they merely provide space for third parties to share, when in actuality it is just that, acting.
Based on the same premise, they additionally continue to maintain that they should not be held liable for what their users post.
Twitter’s decision to fact check in such a high profile and subjective manner stands as a watershed moment in the relationship between government and social media.
By fact checking the President of the United States on, of all things, an issue related to potential election fraud, Twitter tossed its identity of being a platform out into the ethersphere.
But it also let the cat out of the bag as to its real present status, that of full-fledged publisher.
Twitter expressed a political opinion when it engaged in its fact checking. The issue was a mega-politically charged one involving mass mail-in voting and whether such a process is ripe for fraud.
President Trump’s tweet was evaluated by the overseers at Twitter, and users were prompted to "Get the facts about mail-in ballots." Upon clicking a link, users were subsequently instructed that "experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud," an unmistakable political statement that also happens to be false.
If one is willing to dig a little deeper, what is discovered is that Twitter has implemented a policy that currently seems to apply to a single user — President Trump.
When a social media company engages in the same activities as a publication, it must be treated as if it were one.
Newspapers, magazines, etc., fall under the umbrella of conventional publishers that create and edit their own content and are not exempt from liability.
Twitter has not been considered a publisher, despite the fact that it has been acting like one. But to exacerbate the situation, it has increasingly become a publisher of the most highly partisan kind.
And it just so happens that, as of this writing, we are less than six months away from a presidential election.
Some big tech companies have also demonstrated a political bias in giving liberals a pass while engaging in an all-out targeting of conservatives.
—PragerU’s Facebook page was marked with a virtual branding iron as containing "false news" and was demonetized as well.
—A study from NYU on the addition of zinc to a hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin treatment was removed by YouTube.
—A hydroxychloroquine video by Sharyl Attkisson was also removed, although it was subsequently reinstated.
—A contrarian Michael Moore-produced documentary, "Planet of the Humans," was yanked from YouTube.
As reported by Vox, a number of top Silicon Valley figures appear to be working behind the scenes in a concerted effort to get presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden elected. Big tech names include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Apple founder Steve Job’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs, and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Twitter’s own Yoel Roth, who presently holds the title "head of site integrity," has referred to President Trump and his team as "actual Nazis."
Roth has additionally mocked Trump supporters, insulted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and provided campaign donations to former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
President Trump recently signed an executive order that sets in motion a potentially costly change for Twitter with respect to the company’s civil liability exposure.
The order directs all executive departments and agencies to ensure that their application of Section 230(c), the law that limits liability, falls within "the narrow purpose of the section." The executive order cites the legislative purpose of the law to maintain the internet as a "forum for a true diversity of political discourse." The departments and agencies are instructed to "take all appropriate actions in this regard."
The heads of departments and agencies must also review advertising and marketing expenses that are paid to Twitter and other online platforms. This includes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as other parts of the executive branch.
With regard to Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube, and others, it is possible that some of the personnel of these departments and agencies will be looking into the practice of the gathering of information about virtually everything users do and then selling the data for billions of dollars.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has already indicated that the DOJ will begin drafting legislation to regulate social media companies.
President Trump’s executive order may have an immediate limiting effect on social media and big tech’s future editorial actions.
Apparently, tech CEOs, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, have already heard the footsteps of the federal government. Zuckerberg recently distanced himself from Twitter when he told Fox News that the social media platform had, in his opinion, made a mistake, and that no social media platform should be the "arbiter of truth."
The bottom line is that social media and big tech companies can’t have it both ways.
And hopefully, in the very near future, they won’t.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.