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Lawsuit filed against Trump's executive order targeting social media firms

Lawsuit filed against Trump's executive order targeting social media firms

Donald Trump

A lawsuit has been filed by a non-profit group against US President Donald Trump's executive order targetting social media firms Facebook and Twitter claimingthe edict violates free-speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The suit, filed in USDistrict Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the executive order violates the First Amendment by curtailing and chilling the constitutionally protected speech of online platforms and individuals.

The Justice Department declined to comment, according to spokeswoman Brianna Herlihy.

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Trump, irate overTwitter’s move to append fact-checking labels to his inaccurate tweetsabout mail-in voting, issued an executive order May 28 that seeks torescind legal immunity social networks have under current USlaw if they ''censor''speech.

The law, as it currently stands, lets internet companies likeFacebook, YouTube andTwittermoderate content on their services as they see fit, while protecting them from lawsuits over content shared on them.

He had asked federal regulators to look at provisions, contained in Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, that insulate the companies from liability for content posted by users.