Trump’s FCC Chairman Not Opposed To Facebook, Twitter Blocking President

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s main communications regulator said Thursday it was not opposing decisions by Facebook and Twitter to block the president from their social media platforms.

“Given the circumstances we saw yesterday … I am not going to question these decisions,” Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai told C-SPAN on Thursday, according to a recording by the interview seen by Reuters. .

When asked if Trump was responsible for the violent actions carried out on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by Trump supporters, Pai said: ‘It was a terrible mistake to suggest that the election results, and in particular the process which resulted yesterday in the Senate and in the House, could in no way be changed. It was a terrible mistake and I don’t think it should have been abandoned.

Pai, who was appointed president by Trump in January 2017, said he would not go ahead to set new rules sought by the outgoing president to limit corporate social media liability protections, confirmed a spokesperson for the agency.

Last year, Trump asked the FCC to set new rules to limit protections for social media companies under Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects businesses from all responsibility for the content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.

Pai had said on October 15 that he would move forward to set new rules, but told C-SPAN on Thursday that there was not enough time before President-elect Joe Biden entered. in function on January 20 to continue.

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, and the president posted a video supporting them. Twitter and Facebook both deleted the video and banned Trump from posting new posts.

The FCC under Biden is unlikely to move forward as the two current Democratic FCC commissioners have previously called for rejecting Trump’s effort.

Trump had also urged Congress to repeal Section 230 and had vetoed an annual defense bill in part because it did not include the repeal. Congress overturned its veto.