Trump threatens social media after Twitter fact-checks him

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shuttering after Twitter moved a day earlier to d fact checks to two of his tweets.

Claiming tech giants “silence conservative voices,” Trump said, “We will strongly regulate, or close m down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”

And he repeated his unsubstantiated claim — which sparked his latest showdown with Silicon Valley — that expanding mail-in voting “would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and ft of Ballots.”

president can’t unilaterally regulate or close social media companies, as such moves would require action by Congress or Federal Communications Commission.

Trump and his campaign angrily lashed out Tuesday after

Trump replied on Twitter, accusing platform of “interfering in 2020 Presidential Election” and insisting that “as president, I will t allow this to happen.” His 2020 campaign manr, Br Parscale, said Twitter’s “clear political bias” h led campaign to pull “all our vertising from Twitter months ago.” Twitter has banned all political vertising since last vember.

Trump did t explain his threat Wednesday, and call to expand regulation appeared to fly in face of long-held conservative principles on deregulation.

But some Trump allies, who have alleged bias on part of tech companies, have questioned wher platforms like Twitter and Facebook should continue to enjoy liability protections as “platforms” under federal law — or be treated more like publishers, which could face lawsuits over content.

protections have been credited with allowing unfettered growth of internet for more than two deces, but w some Trump allies are vocating that social media companies face more scrutiny.

“Big tech gets a huge handout from federal government," Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News. “y get this special immunity, this special immunity from suits and from liability that’s worth billions of dollars to m every year. Why are y getting subsidized by federal taxpayers to censor conservatives, to censor people critical of China.”