On 28 May 2020, President Trump signed an executive order to reestablish social networks neutrality on the Internet. [1]

Hereafter, social networks (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) and other internet forums must choose between:
– publishing unfiltered the content posted by their users; or
– filtering, altering, commenting on them.

In the first case, the social media companies shall not be legally liable for the posts of their users; however, in the second case, if they filter, alter or comment on a single post submitted by a user, they will be held responsible for the content of all the users they choose to publish.

In doing so, President Trump restores the United States’ concept of freedom of expression set out in the First Amendment, which guarantees the unrestricted right to free speech regardless of the judgment one may make on this or that idea.

US and UK laws, unlike European laws, do however condemn defamation, but the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff, not the accused.

The decree comes after Twitter posted a warning questioning the authenticity of the information in a message posted by Donald Trump.

This decree should also apply to the NewsGuard notes used by Google to censor news sites contesting US imperialism. [2]

[1] “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship”, by Donald Trump, Voltaire Network, 28 May 2020.

[2] “The EU, NATO, NewsGuard and the Voltaire Network”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 5 May 2020.