Google, Facebook and Twitter face bias reckoning: Donald Trump will sign executive order threatening to investigate and CLOSE web giants he claims are censoring conservatives in wake of Twitter fact-check row

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on social media companies today that will expose them to government investigations into allegations of bias and more lawsuits.

It comes after Twitter slapped two of the President's tweets with a 'fact check' on Tuesday and Trump hit back by saying he could close down the Silicon Valley giant.

Yesterday the president upped the ante, demanding all social media platforms 'Clean up your act, NOW!!!!', ahead of the White House announcing his plans for an executive order. 

Trump is expected to set up a mechanism allowing Americans to report alleged political censorship or bias by the social media giants which will be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

His executive order is also expected to order a review of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Google from being responsible for the material posted by their users.

Trump's order would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to propose and clarify regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law largely exempting online platforms from legal liability for users' posts. 

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President Trump's aides told reporters traveling on Air Force One that the president would sign a social media-focused executive order. While they didn't give details he's been in a fight with Twitter for 24 hours over the site's decision to fact-check his tweets

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Donald Trump warned Wednesday morning that his administration will begin regulating and shutting down social media sites, claiming tech giants try to 'totally silence conservative voices'

The claim came after Twitter, one of his favorite mediums for communicating with the American people, labeled two of his tweets about mail-in ballots as 'misleading'

It also requires the agency to look at whether a social media platform uses deceptive policies to moderate content and if its policies are inconsistent with its terms of service.

Perhaps more significantly, the draft order would also set up a a tool for Americans to report examples of bias or censorship by social media giants.

The White House tech bias reporting tool will collect complaints of online censorship and submit them to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC will then be required to 'consider taking action', examine whether complaints violate the law, draw up a report describing such complaints and make the report publicly available.

The draft order also requires the attorney general to establish a working group including state attorneys general that will examine the enforcement of state laws that prohibit online platforms from engaging in unfair and deceptive acts.   

The 1996 statute has allowed Silicon Valley to make billions of dollars from their users' posts, photos and videos, with minimal legal liability, while giving them freedom to remove anything they see as 'objectionable.' 

Conservatives - and many others outside mainstream thought on matters like history, climate change and even the coronavirus - have criticized Section 230 because it allows big tech to censor content. 

Senators Marco Rubio (FL) and Josh Hawley (MO) were among those who slammed Twitter for putting its fact-checking flag on the president's tweets.

Rubio said: 'The law still protects social media companies like @Twitter because they are considered forums not publishers. But if they have now decided to exercise an editorial role like a publisher then they should no longer be shielded from liability & treated as publishers under the law.' 

Hawley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it 'raises serious questions about whether Twitter targeted the President for political reasons.' 

Michael Pachter, research analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, told Fox Business: 'Twitter came up with a rule that applies to one person ...

'They're not treating (Trump) the way they treat everybody else. They came up with a separate set of rules just for him, which is fact-checking, because they're too afraid of his bullying to delete the tweet or suspend him.'

Pachter said that fact-checking 'is a stupid idea on Twitter's part' and that instead they should just delete tweets which are reported, warn the offender or suspend them for breaking its rules.   

The president has often attacked social media giants and the people who run them – even as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has refused to give into pressures to take some of Trump's tweets down. Pictured: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Dorsey (right)

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Twitter posted a blue exclamation mark alert underneath two of Trump's tweets about potential for fraud with mail-in voting, prompting users to 'get the facts about mail-in ballots'

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Users who clicked on the blue exclamation marks are then redirected to a page explaining why the claim was unsubstantiated, including an assertion that Trump's claim are 'false' and that there is 'no evidence' that vote-by-mail was linked to voter fraud 

Trump had yesterday lamented in a Twitter thread that conservatives are being silenced and disproportionately regulated on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook as Twitter issued 'misleading' warning labels on two of his tweets about mail-in voting on Tuesday.

'Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,' the president posted to his Twitter Wednesday morning. 'We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.'

The warning was issued after Trump reacted with fury to having two of his tweets labelled as misleading, with links to news articles suggesting they were false attached. 

In contrast, Twitter's Jack Dorsey refused to take down the president's tweets where he touted a conspiracy theory that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of a staffer when he was a Republican U.S. congressman from Florida. 

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meanwhile criticized his competitor and said it was not the place of private companies to interfere in what people say online.  

Speaking to Fox News, Zuckerberg said: 'We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this ... I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.

'Private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that.'

Twitter users, including some Republicans, did not react kindly to the president suggesting increased regulations on social media websites.

Prominent conservative Margot Cleveland, whose work has been featured in several right leaning news publications, weighed in claiming any private organization has the right to decide what speech can and cannot be featured on their platform.

'Pro Tip: Saying Twitter is violating your constitutional right to free speech or your First Amendment rights is wacko b/c Twitter ain't the government,' Cleveland wrote Wednesday morning. 'Saying Twitter is 'stifling free speech' isn't. Powerful private organizations can & do stifle speech.'  

Trump critic and Republican George Conway, who is married to White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, reposted a message from the State Department spokeswoman that contradicted the president's tweet.

'The State Department's spokesperson, a couple of hours after the President of the United States suggested that the government may 'strongly regulate' social media platforms or 'close them down,'' Conway wrote as a lead up.

Morgan Ortagus tweeted from the official State Department spokesperson account: 'Governments that restrict internet access deprive their citizens of the information they need to stay safe. #FreedomOfExpression both online and offline is vital, especially during COVID-19. @StateDept is proud to be an active member of the @FO_Coalition.' 

Kellyanne Conway criticized Twitter for flagging the tweets, lashing out at Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of site Integrity, during an interview with Fox & Friends Wednesday.

She even cited his Twitter handle on live television to make sure Republicans knew where to direct their complaints.

'This guy is constantly attacking Trump voters, Trump, Mitch McConnell, you name it. He's the head of integrity at Twitter,' Conway lamented.

'It's horrible the way he looks at people who should otherwise have a free and clear platform on Twitter.' 

Trump accused on Tuesday night that Twitter is interfering in the 2020 presidential election by fact-checking his tweets and flagging it with disclaimers

He also accused the tech giant of 'stifling free speech' in a fiery rant on Tuesday

Trump also re-asserted his flagged tweets' theme in his Wednesday morning tweet: 'Just like we can't let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country.'

Trump views that mail-in ballots will increase the chances of voter fraud – and benefit Democrats in 2020.

'It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots,' Trump insisted. 'Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!' 

On Tuesday, the president tweeted that California's mail-in balloting initiative would lead to substantial voter fraud in the November general election.

'There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,' Trump wrote Tuesday morning.

He then insinuated that non-citizens would be able to obtain ballots.

'The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,' he continued in the Twitter rant. 'That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote.'

Trump ended the two-tweet tirade by saying, 'This will be a Rigged Election.'

'No way!' said Trump, who votes in Florida absentee.

The president used a mail-in ballot to vote in the Florida primary last month – a move his administration has defended since he cannot show up for in-person voting while living in Washington, D.C. 

Trump's claims were not well received by Republicans, with prominent conservative Margot Cleveland asserting 'Twitter ain't the government' in explaining it cannot 'stifle free speech'

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George Conway, an anti-Trump Republican who is married to White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, pointed out that the president's own State Department spokesperson disagrees with him on regulating social media 

By Tuesday afternoon, Twitter had flagged the tweets with a blue exclamation mark prompting users to 'get the facts about mail-in ballots.'

Another page on the social media site called Trump's tweets 'unsubstantiated,' according to fact-checkers from CNN, Washington Post and other news outlets.

'These tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots,' a statement from Twitter read.  

Following the move from Twitter, Trump used the social media site he is attacking to decry its decision to label his tweets 'misleading' and accused them of 'stifling free speech.' 

He threatened the tech giant, stating he wouldn't allow it to continue.

'@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post,' Trump wrote Tuesday night.

'Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!' he asserted.

Trump's 2020 campaign was quick to slam the move.

'We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them,' campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement.    

For weeks Trump has said that states, not wanting to expose the voting public to COVID-19, shouldn't be implementing full-scale mail-in balloting plans. 

The president has drawn a distinction between absentee ballots, which he said can be used for special purposes, and governors sending every American voter a ballot to send back in.  

'I have to do an absentee because I'm voting in Florida and I happen to be president and I live in that beautiful house over there that's painted white,' he said in the Rose Garden Tuesday.   

Trump's tweets came after the Republican National Committee and two other GOP groups filed a lawsuit Sunday against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had signed an executive order to use mail-in ballots for the November election. 

'In California the governor, I hear, is sending millions of ballots all over the state. Millions, to anybody. People that aren't citizens, illegals, anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot,' Trump said at the White House Tuesday.

'We are not going to destroy this county by allowing things like that to happen. We're not destroying our country,' he added. 

Republicans long have been suspicious that making voting easier would elect more Democrats. Young people, for instance, tend to tilt more Democratic, but are also less likely to vote in-person. 

California was the first state in the country to commit to sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters for the November election, a move responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

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President Trump continued to tweet about Lori Klausutis' death on Tuesday, again suggesting that Joe Scarborough may have been behind her death 

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'Democrats continue to use this pandemic as a ploy to implement their partisan election agenda, and Governor Newsom's executive order is the latest direct assault on the integrity of our elections,' Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. 

'No state that conducts all-mail elections automatically mails ballots to inactive voters because it invites fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting,' it added.

The lawsuit asks for Newsom's order to be barred as unlawful and was filed by the RNC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the California Republican Party.

Numerous studies have found little evidence of voter fraud connected to voting by mail. Democrats say it is necessary to counter health risks from the coronavirus by helping to prevent crowds at polling places.

Last Wednesday, Trump denounced plans to expand voting by mail in Michigan and Nevada, two key swing states.  

He briefly threatened to withhold federal funding for the two states but dropped the warning after an avalanche of criticism from Democrats.   

Since winning the 2016 election via the Electoral College, but losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, the president has alleged that 'millions' of people voted illegally in California and that's how Clinton had such an edge. 

There was no evidence of wide-scale voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.