White House Drafts Order to Put FCC in Charge of Social Media Oversight
The Trump administration drafts an executive order that tasks the FCC and FTC with monitoring how major social media companies filter and curate content. The proposal challenges the legal protections tech platforms currently hold under the Communications Decency Act.
The White House prepares a draft executive order called "Protecting Americans from Online Censorship" that gives the Federal Communications Commission oversight of how major social media networks manage their platforms. Under this proposed order, the FCC develops new regulations to determine when and how companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google filter posts, videos, and articles.
The draft order also directs the Federal Trade Commission to consider these new policies when investigating or filing lawsuits against technology companies. It requires the FTC to open a public complaint docket and coordinate with the FCC to investigate whether platform curation remains politically neutral, utilizing over 15,000 censorship complaints previously gathered by the White House.
This proposal targets the legal shielding tech companies currently enjoy under the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Any social media company with a monthly user base exceeding one-eighth of the U.S. population faces this new regulatory scrutiny, reflecting a broader bipartisan interest in Washington regarding the liability protections of major technology platforms.