WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Friday that he has revoked a Trump-era executive order that challenged the legal protections for social media sites and other interactive computer services and online platforms. Executive Order 13925, entitled “Preventing Online Censorship”, was implemented by former President Donald Trump on May 28, 2020.
While Trump positioned the executive order as a mechanism to protect free speech and prevent social media platforms from arbitrary and inconsistent application of their terms of service in suspending and banning users, or labeling their tweets and posts with warnings, the measure was viewed by Trump’s critics as a means to retaliate against third-party fact-checking services that challenged the former president’s numerous lies.
Under the order, federal agencies were directed by the Trump administration to punish private online social media services and other interactive computer services for content moderation actions that challenged President Trump’s social media presence. In his own executive order issued last Friday Biden revoked 13925 and several other orders issued by Trump, including Executive Order 13978, “Building the National Garden of American Heroes.”
“The Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the heads of executive departments and agencies shall promptly consider taking steps to rescind any orders, rules, regulations, guidelines, or policies, or portions thereof, implementing or enforcing the Presidential actions identified in section 1 of this order, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law,” states Section 2 of Biden’s new order.
At the time of its issuance, Trump presented his executive order as a means to counter an alleged liberal bias that large tech companies have against right-wing voices. The order, however, was a direct challenge to the First Amendment on the internet and even put at risk other platforms that include streaming content providers and more adult-oriented entertainment outlets like OnlyFans.
Last month, a coalition of civil liberties groups sent a joint letter to President Biden asking him to suspend his predecessor’s “dangerous and unconstitutional executive order.”
“Eliminating this egregiously unconstitutional hold-over from the prior Administration vindicates the Constitution’s protections for both online services and the users who rely on them for accurate, truthful information about voting rights,” the coalition letter stated. “It will also save Department of Justice resources that would otherwise be used to defend this unconstitutional and undemocratic executive order,” the coalition added.
The groups that signed the letter include the Center for Democracy & Technology, Common Cause, Rock The Vote, Free Press, Voto Latino, and Decode Democracy.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects internet platforms from the actions of third-party users who may have malicious and illegal intent. The law grants companies to self-regulate and conduct their own content moderation actions free of oversight from a public institution or a government agency. Case law has also repeatedly endorsed the legitimacy of Section 230 as a crucial component of protecting free speech on the internet and keeping the web open, including for adult sites and platforms.
