Trump is throwing tantrums about Twitter and MSNBC because he has no plan to pull the country out of the interlocking public health and economic crises created by the coronavirus and, relatedly, he has very little to campaign on beyond conspiracy theories and grievance— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 28, 2020
Yes. Thing about temper tantrums is, they are acts of absolute futility by the completely powerless.
Twitter fact-checked two of his tweets and Trump wants to put the Constitution through a shredder https://t.co/I3fb3DRHZJ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 28, 2020
He would need Congress to do that, and even the GOP Senate won't go along with him; and that's all he has. Writing an executive order is not exactly the same thing as creating a Constitutional shredder. See "Tantrum, Temper," entry above.
Trump is threatening to close down social media companies. He can’t do that. https://t.co/7iLzrHRF6v— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 28, 2020
The tweet gets it right. The analysis gets it wrong.
One thing Trump can do is try to regulate tech companies like Twitter in other ways. He could press for a repeal of Section 230, a law that’s part of the internet’s foundation and which shields tech platforms from being sued over content that users post on their sites.Josh Hawley? There's a powerhouse Senator! Who else has Hawley got? Ted Cruz, the most hated man in the Senate for 8 years running? Yeah, this bill lands on Trump's desk before the August recess...er, the October recess...er, after the November elections...er.....
Some, like Senator Josh Hawley, have called on Congress to repeal Section 230, which would allow anyone people who feels they are victims of anti-conservative discrimination on these platforms to take legal action against the platforms themselves. So far, those efforts have failed to garner significant bipartisan congressional support.
Trump could also try to use his feud with social media platforms as political ammo in supporting the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust investigations into major social media companies.
But while Facebook and Google are obvious targets for antitrust regulation, Twitter has less to worry about. It’s hard to argue that Twitter, which is a much smaller company than Facebook or Google, has monopolistic power on social media, as former spokesperson Nu Wexler pointed out.
Anti-trust actions against Facebook and Google wouldn't even get to trial before 2021, and I like the odds that both have deep enough pockets to fight those battles (not that I care if they lose, either). A squib, in other words, not a broadside. Unless Trump wins re-election, something less and less likely by the hour, Biden would either drop the suits, or pursue them and, again, I don't mind what happens to either. Though Biden's DOJ wouldn't pursue them on the grounds they weren't friendly enough to conservatives. Google and Facebook like their odds if that's the argument brought before a court, believe me.
Trump sue Twitter? Are you kidding? Does a heroin addict burn the poppy fields? Does a cokehead dream of nuking Colombia?
lol Trump is threatening to shut down Twitter and Facebook, which would never happen because he is more addicted to Twitter than a crack user is to crack.— Red, Noble Committee Marketing Director (@Redpainter1) May 27, 2020
And tangentially related:
All anyone needs to know is that these are not decent people, not one of them. https://t.co/3721GL41iU— Clyde Haberman (@ClydeHaberman) May 27, 2020
All right thinking people are condemning this. Limbaugh only cares that you spell his name right. Oh, and prove the dribble he spouts into a microphone is still important enough to be outraged about.
Me, I think of him as a dried up shock jock, as in: "Is he still alive?"
Funny how Limbaugh describes Trump in the same terms that Alfred described the Joker in The Dark Knight.
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