Did you know Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Restoring Freedom of Speech and End to Federal Censorship

 

It’s only been two days since Donald Trump came into power but he’s signed a host of executive orders.

The latest one affecting the tech world is designed to restore freedom of speech and put an end to federal censorship. Under this order, all agents, employees, and government agencies cannot use federal resources to withhold an American’s free speech rights.

It similarly accused the entire administration under the leadership of Joe Biden of trying to restrict free speech rights through both misinformation and disinformation. Trump did not hold back his criticism against Biden, accusing his administration of playing with users’ freedom of speech through censorship.

He also accused them of exerting unnecessary pressure on third parties to ensure their demands were met, no matter what cost they came with. Suppressing free speech was a major crime that Trump says should never have arisen.

This new executive order also calls for investigations against Biden’s administration’s activity linked to censorship and what the right remedial actions should be. His major issue is the last government’s efforts at mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic where misinformation was at large online. In 2023, a ruling made by the judge barred dozens of officials in different cabinet departments from talking to social media platforms about content. They argued it was in violation of America’s First Amendment.

However, just one year later, the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court which felt feds could alert social media apps about content violating policies and adding possible suggestions for immediate removal. The only difference now is that it would not be at the level of a violation of the First Amendment unless the government felt it was needed.

We’re all aware of the infamous incident where Biden’s administration put pressure on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to censor posts linked to the pandemic. The Facebook owner did admit that he made the right call but was pressured into doing so with people screaming and yelling at employees inside the workforce. They demanded the removal of all material that doubted the effects of the vaccine.

In that attempt, the administration also tried to censor those arguing against the issue, forcing the removal of factual content which again Zuckerberg admits was wrong. Now, Meta is resorting to Community Notes that are driven by users on the app. It’s the best alternative to fact-checking, Zuckerberg adds.

The only problem with this order is how it fails to address the real problem which is growing misinformation surrounding AI. The same is the case with the lack of attention given by Trump to deepfakes linked to AI, which again seems to be the bigger issue at the moment. 

 Image: TWH / X