Tech platforms request FCC to reject President Trump’s new social media regulations

Major online platforms including Facebook, Amazon, and Google urged the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject the federal administration’s request to restrict online platform’s ability to remove objectionable content. US President Donald Trump filed a petition before the FCC in August seeking more rules to prevent platforms from removing third party content. Businesses highlighted that the new rules could result in a lack of legal protection for removing ‘fraudulent schemes, scams, dangerous content promoting suicide or eating disorders to teens, ad a wide range of other types of objectionable content’. The FCC also received support from the Democrats to reject the federal administration request. So far, Twitter has warned President Trump’s followers to fact check his tweets. In the USA, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects online platforms from liability for third party content, but also allows them to remove objectionable posts.