On Monday President Donald Trump signed an executive order that ensures no federal government official facilitates conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen, reports Joe Lauria.
Trump signing executive orders in Washington on Monday. (Trump White House/Wikimedia Commons)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
President Donald Trump in his inaugural speech on Monday vowed to end online censorship by government using social media companies as proxies.
He said:
“After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again.”
Later on Monday Trump signed the executive order, “Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship, which reads:
“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.
Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.
Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society. ”
The executive order sets out to:
(a) secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech;
(b) ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen;
(c) ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; and
(d) identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.
Significantly, the EO says the “Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order.”
Background to the Order
According to the Twitter Files, the Biden administration ramped up federal agencies such as Homeland Security and the F.B.I. to pressure social media companies like Twitter to remove tweets or suspend user accounts because the federal government determined they had posted “mis” or “disinformation.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled more than once, most recently in National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo(2024), that it is illegal for the government to use a private actor as a proxy to suppress free speech. The Biden administration acted mostly against conservatives online, but left-wing critics of the Democrats were also targeted.
(Biden tried direct government censorship with his Disinformation Governance Board in the Department of Homeland Security but it collapsed after public and Republican outrage over its clear unconstitutionality.)
Social media companies were often uncomfortable with the intense pressure they were under from the government to censor their users. For instance, files reported on by Matt Taibbi show Twitter executives internally debating how they could ignore government pressure.
Zuckerberg testifies before Congress, April 2018. (Cspan.org screeshot)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan in August 2022 that the F.B.I. warned him about Hunter Biden’s laptop just weeks before the 2020 election and based on that, Facebook made it technically difficult for its users to share the story. “When we take down something that we’re not supposed to, that’s the worst,” Zuckerberg told Rogan.
More than 50 former U.S. intelligence officers falsely issued a statement saying the laptop story was “Russian propaganda.” Based on that, Twitter not only blocked posts about it, but suspended The New York Post’s account as it was the Post that broke the story.
The mainstream media later admitted the laptop story was real. The laptop gave evidence of Joe Biden’s involvement in Hunter’s shady business deals and was not Russian disinformation.
Tampering with the story’s reach was a clear case of “election interference” by pro-Democratic forces as opposed to their own phony allegations of Russian electoral interference in 2016 and 2020.
Just before Trump’s inauguration, Zuckerberg announced that he would be ending third-party fact-checking on Facebook. Zuckerberg admitted this month that, “We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes.”
“Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” Zuckerberg said.
“Fact-checking” and the “anti-disiformation” cottage industry sprung up in the wake of Trump’s initially shocking 2016 victory. It sought to discredit criticism of the fake Russiagate scandal that ensnared Trump in a conspiracy theory which claimed Trump won because he was a Kremlin agent.
These fact checkers and overnight disinformation “experts” helped this story become fanatically embraced by Democratic media and millions of Americans. They moved on to focus on other so-called “disinformation,” mostly connected to Russia.
These so-called experts extended their dragnet to independent media and social media users who questioned Russiagate and other mainstream narratives.
Independent media outlets, including Consortium News, were essentially accused of spreading Russian propaganda because of its legitimate criticism of U.S. Russia policy, especially Washington’s provocation of Moscow in Ukraine.
A Louisiana judge on July 4, 2023 banned a number of Biden administration officials from communicating with social media companies because of the Twitter files revelations.
The case of Missouri v. Biden was eventually dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2024, which ruled that the states of Missouri and Louisiana did not have standing to bring the action against the federal government.
Trump’s executive order would appear to overcome that ruling.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former 25-year U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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Meanwhile he’s banning all criticism of the Gaza Holocaust.
It’s interesting that people see “the right of free speech” in the First Amendment, even though that phrase is nowhere to be found in it. James Madison used the Virginia constitution’s “Declaration of Rights” as the model for his draft of the federal Bill of Rights. That document was silent on freedom of speech and of the press. But Madison could not have been unaware of the declaration of rights in Pennsylvania’s 1776 revised state constitution, in which we find the words “the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing, and of publishing, their sentiments; therefore the freedom of the press ought not to be restrained.” Madison simply omitted that all-important first clause, which would have upheld free speech as an natural or inalienable right of the citizens in the new republic.
The story behind the First Amendment is told in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Leonard Levy’s book “Emergence of a Free Press” (Ivan Dee, 1985). The author convincingly demonstrates that the framers never intended to overthrow the common law of seditious libel, the traditional means of stifling dissent in the colonies and England.
Well, the language of this order is a breath of fresh air compared to the bloodless guillotine of censorship attempted by the Biden administration. Needless to say, the legacy media is already accusing the Trump administration of censoring Democrats on Meta. You must accuse your enemies of something akin to murder if you wish to cover up your own bloody rampages. Russia-gate with a different focus and a different name will shortly ensue. And I’m not even a Trump fan, nor a Republican. It’s just a simple matter of calling balls and strikes now.
Whatever this Executive Order is worth, when I checked the NYT over and over again I could not find any mention of it. I still find it hard to believe how bad is the NYT.
Well, so far, so good. Let’s not convene the jury until we see implementation.
Joe, will you deal with the elephants in the room in a later article — misinformation (aka lies) and hate speech.
I could write about the rapes and child abuse of the incumbent … but what if it’s not true?
How do we protect the truth and doesn’t government have a role to play in what some might call censorship?
More importantly, perhaps, hate speech.
The Southport stabbings in the UK, July 29, 2024 — three children killed; 10 injured by a Welshman who has now pleaded guilty.
The social media lies and hate speech saw riots targeting Muslims across the UK and an attempt to burn down a refuge home where refugees of various hues and religions cowered in terror.
Hate speech will result in innocent people being killed. Is there a role for government “censorship”? Surely social media and its “oligarchs” must be held responsible.
Misinformation and hate speech are protected speech. Popular speech doesn’t need constitutional protection. It’s unpopular and ugly speech that require protection. That’s why the ACLU went to bat for the Skokie Nazis in the 1970s. Because once you set a precedent of it being OK to censor one group, it inevitably gets applied over-and-over again to other groups. You have to remember that sooner or later, your ideological enemies are going be in power, and do you really want to hand them the power to censor YOU?
As far as misinformation goes, who gets to decide what is information and what is mis/dis/mal-information? Some nameless, faceless bureaucrats in the government? Some minimum wage intern at a ‘fact-checking’ company? The Hunter Biden laptop was real, but that didn’t stop ‘fact checkers’ from declaring it to be Russian propaganda and getting it blocked on social media. Social media companies were under tremendous pressure from the Biden administration (particularly Andy Slavitt) to ban Alex Berenson for accurately pointing out that Covid jabs were therapeutics rather than vaccines, and had never even been tested for their ability to ‘stop the spread’. Meanwhile, no one fact checked Fauci’s claims of the vaccines being a ‘dead end for the virus’ or Biden’s claims of a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’, or call out the disinformation campaign emanating from NIAID on the origins of the virus or on the Great Barrington Declaration. Most ridiculous of all were when respected physicians and scientists who refused to go along with the official narrative were ‘fact checked’ by fact-checkers with journalism or humanities degrees who ruled their measured scientific objections as heresy against ‘the science’.
AND, not for noth’n; but, the “rub” is President Trump’s “All-Exclusive,” E.O., is for “AMERICANS,” only,” i.e., “signed an executive order that ensures no federal government official facilitates conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any [AMERICAN] citizen; “After years and years of ……to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to [AMERICA].” “Never again …..be weaponized to persecute political opponents…..”
……“Under the guise of combatting…… protected speech rights of [AMERICAN] citizens across the United States;” “The executive order sets out to: (a) secure the right of the [AMERICAN] people”………..
Basically, POTUS’ E.O., is half-jackass. The “fix” is f/easy, “Make It Rain,” i.e., “FOR Domestic & Foreign people. NOT to be discriminated or targeted per his/her profession, occupation, citizenship.
Hence, the “Red” flag warning, “Keep your head on a swivel,” i.e., 1) birth rights aka “anchor” babies are on the table, 2) “to avoid the USG’s back against the wall, after 14+ years of persecuting Julian Assange,” POTUS Trump intentionally, did not say his name; BUT, Trump’s “got” his C.Y.A., with this, “Never again …..be weaponized to persecute political opponents.”
The ask, “Say His Name;” &, every Named Investigative “Foreign-Born” Journalist “man-handled, illegally detained, disappeared, murdered” in the past four (4+) years!!! The ask, “CANCEL” the Biden-Harris inhumane engagement w/the Universe’s investigative journalists. Mandate the “Hors d’War,” in the House of Representatives who, “interviewed Matt Taibbi & Michael Shellenberger, MANDATE, each STAND, in the well, of “The People’s House” and apologize to Matt Taibbi & Michael Shellenberger for behaving like feral cats versus diplomats. At the f/least, force “decorum,” among the women & men on the wrong f/side of the fence!!!
TY, Joe Lauria, CN, et al. “Keep It Lit!”
Write more clearly, Leo.
Robert Crosman,
DFTT is Rule #1: “Don’t feed the trolls.” Generally, trolls come @ us, from the dark side, “wandering about looking for game.” Trolls bank on “push’n buttons.” They “got” a passion to provoke by “yank’n their target’s chain.” Their mission is, to trigger conflict. It’s counterproductive.
Everyone’s got to be careful. TY. Ciao.
Well said, Leo. An apology from the House of Representatives to Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger (those” so-called journalists” as one congresswoman ignorantly stated) would be most satisfying. It may force our Congress to think twice prior to partaking in future spectacles intended to bully us from holding tightly to our precious right to freedom of speech thanks to our First Amendment.
Thank You, C. Parker, you “get” this, “being a neighbor to a human being and NOT a fence!!!” I, love it! I, LeoSun, Second these Emotions! Likewise, “well, said!” TY, C. Parker. “Keep It Lit!”
The law must include all internet platforms. all priately owned companies or appmust observe or be shut down-no exceptions…..period. Otherwie the new mandate is worthless!
I agree that the EO should be comprehensive, but saying it is worthless if it is not is just silly. Even if it only covered the FAANG companies, that would still represent a massive improvement as they represent the lion’s share of the social media ecosystem.
Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
The government cannot force the First Amendment on private companies. It is only intended for government. But government, in the form of this order, can stop itself from using private companies to do what it can’t, namely violate the First Amendment.
As a libertarian leaning democratic socialist, it is likely that I will find many policies of the incoming Trump administration distasteful and some, intolerably horrible, but the subject matter of this article is not among them. Along with the recently implemented Palestinian truce, I acknowledge that so far, at least in some things, the new Trump administration is a pleasant surprise.
You cannot be a libertarian and at the same time be a socialist. You are either one or the other. Apart from that confusion, I am not totally surprised because, as Joe reports, social media attacked Trump nonstop with their phoney Russiagate propaganda.
I believe the operative word was “leaning.”
I agree Guillermo as do many other Americans, some who are Democrats and/or were on the Marxist Leninist Left. As an activist, I think we can organize to protest those actions we are against if we support what we want to see happen that Trump is promoting. A big part of our problem is that the public is so often being mis-led by journalists of all stripes. T hen there is Trump’s style of communication which sometimes leaves out a much needed explanation making his statements easy to mis-interpret – especially by those who want him to fail.
There is also a lot of WILLFUL misinterpretation, where the press and anti-Trump activists intentionally skew words and actions of people in the Trumpian sphere to their worst possible interpretation.
Like Elon Musk’s “I’m giving you guys my heart” salute, which he clearly meant to be resemble pulling his heart from his chest and handing it to the crowd, but instead social media and the press went wild with claiming it was a Nazi salute. Every single one of them knows Elon is not a Nazi, but they reflexively use any opportunity no matter how small to make people in Trumpworld appear to evil and/or stupid. Eve the ADL wasn’t buying it, and put out a statement that basically said “Stop being silly. It wasn’t a Nazi salute”.
I’d rate the Elon salute kerfuffle somewhere between the Howard Dean scream and Richard Nixon sweating during the debate with JFK. Worthy of mockery? Sure. Newsworthy in major media stories? No. Worthy of getting upset about? Absolutely not.
There are some things we can do to try and change the likely outcome of this ceasefire, which is that Israel will not complete all the ceasefire phases, and return to its bloodletting spree.
This is Trump’s deal, or at least he believes it is. If the deal makes him happy, he’ll want to see it continue. If he gets more good feelings from those supporting the ceasefire, than those who are unhappy with it, we can pretty much count on which side a narcissist will favor.
We need to encourage an on-going campaign to send praise, along with “thank yous” to Trump, on Inauguration Day and every day thereafter. Let him feel the love. He may decide he likes it. Encourage the idea of him deserving a Nobel Peace Prize, because he will have earned it, unlike Obama. We have turned out millions to protest this war. Can we turn out to save this ceasefire and the people of Gaza? It’s a question with an unknown answer as of now.
Flattery has never had a higher calling. We owe it to Gaza, to humanity, and even possibly to Trump, to give it our best try.
The key to keeping the ceasefire in place is (1) Trump and his undiplomatic diplomats riding herd on Bibi to keep him in line and (2) Hamas not doing anything stupid, like lobbing more missiles into Israel during the ceasefire. Bibi wants and needs an excuse to start things back up without losing Trump’s support. Hopefully Hamas is not dumb enough to give him one.
The law? How quaint. I have to remain predictably skeptical that this is merely another cheap PR stunt. We have the first amendment and the Bill of Rights to protect our so-called civil liberties. Yet we have seen abuse of power and abuse of the law for many decades. Younger folks may not recall COINTELPRO and other abuses. All three branches of govt. have conflicts of interest, take bribes and are institutionally corrupt. Operation Mockingbird comes to mind as well…
Edward Snowden will have some interesting takes on this as well.
Is Elon the Oligarch a federal official? Can he use his oligarch-monopoly power to smash free speech on HIS platform? The electromagnetic spectrum (theoretically a “public good”) is privatized and monopolized. The abuses are rife. If the DT were serious he would use his power to break up the Techno-Feudal monopolies (see Yanis Varoufakis) The private mega-corps and hedge fund financial backers will not be constrained by this law. Free speech and free press are not possible when we have Orwellian monopoly over almost all the discourse the public see and hear.
The DT regime, like the JB regime and past regimes, will simply ignore the law when it damages their interests and use it to go after people they don’t like, as usual. Case in point Israel and Palestine – the federal govt. ignores and breaks its own laws on a daily basis.
This is like putting band-aid (sticking plaster) on an amputated limb.
Agreed
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled off was convincing people he didn’t exist.
The 2nd greatest trick was convincing the majority of Americans that the Church commission ‘fixed’ the federal law enforcement and intelligence community. Nope. It merely tamped down the rampant corruption and abuse of civil liberties that those agencies were founded upon for a little while. By the 90s, they were back their old ways with the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs, and ever since 9/11 their predatory behavior has been spiraling out of control.
Is this for real or just theater?
Apparently elections can make a difference. At least when the winning candidate is not from the establishment political class. To be seen is how far it goes. Trump has already initiated contacts with Xi Jinping of China and Putin in Russia with good results. Talking is always good. That is something Biden, Blinken and Sullivan completely shut down. No doubt because Biden was completely inadequate to the task. In any case, compared to the last four miserable years, Trump is not more of the same. We’ll have to see what it means but talking to adversaries and removing censorship to any extent is a good start and a lot more than we would have had with Biden2.
If you would like an interesting and non-TDS based analysis of what Trump is planning, check out Mercouris and Christoforou at the Duran yesterday: hXXps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgaN9hEZM7o. It’s quite an agenda.