The FCC's case against Twitter

Red States:

The debate over Twitter’s censoring of conservative speech is currently raging. The battle lines aren’t especially clear, as some want to revoke Section 230 completely, some want to do nothing, and some are in the middle, hoping that Twitter polices themselves and saves everyone the trouble.

Now, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has publicly commented, pressing Twitter on their selection bias, which includes allowing Iran’s dictator to spew real threats with no censorship at all.

Ajit Pai

✔@AjitPaiFCC

Serious question for @Twitter: Do these tweets from Supreme Leader of Iran @khamenei_ir violate "Twitter Rules about glorifying violence"?

38.8K

8:59 AM - May 29, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

21.2K people are talking about this

This was always going to be the response and it’s why it was so idiotic for Twitter to even involve itself in such policing of speech of their platform. The standards are not defined, nor are they uniformly enforced. That’s how you end up with the President being censored for “encouraging violence” while Khamenei can directly call for the destruction of Israel with no consequences. There are also questions about whether allowing Khamenei to speak as a state entity on the platform violates sanctions against the country.

What this shows is that the FCC is paying attention and that’s not good news for Twitter. Whether they’ll take regulatory action isn’t clear, but that last thing any social media company wants is the FCC putting a microscope on them.

This much is clear though.

Varad Mehta@varadmehta

Twitter has no one to blame but itself. And it deserves plenty. https://twitter.com/noahcrothman/status/1266371977943498759 …

Noah Rothman

✔@NoahCRothman

This was inevitably where this would go. Dipping its toe into fact checking was always a selective and subjective exercise that could never be uniformly applied. Forcing this platform to police all its content will be the end of it. https://twitter.com/AjitPaiFCC/status/1266368492258816002 …

44

11:19 AM - May 29, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See Varad Mehta's other Tweets

Twitter is at fault here. They decided to put politics over common sense, including common business sense. Why even stir the hornet’s nest up, especially when so many on both sides want to neuter you? It makes no sense, but unlike Facebook’s founder, Jack Dorsey is an idealist who sees his liberal ideology as paramount. If it means burning down his platform, that may be a price he’s willing to pay....

Ted Cruz has also called for action against Twitter for violation of sanctions against Iran.  Twitter and its nest of liberals had better buckle up for some serious legal fees in the coming months.

It’s Time To Stop Pretending Twitter Is Neutral

If Twitter wants to editorialize and 'factcheck' President Trump’s tweets with disclaimers, then it should be treated like any other publisher.

See also "Twitter ignores far worse than Trump — time to stop singling him out."