Outgoing president, Donald Trump, says he will carry through his threat to defund the military if there is no clause to “terminate” Section 230.
One term president, Donald Trump, is continuing to insist that he will defund the military if he doesn’t see a clause that will “terminate” Section 230.
Earlier, Trump decided to pull a last ditch effort to kill the law. He demanded that Section 230 be eliminated in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is the bill that funds the US military. It was a plan so hairbrained, even Republican’s blew him off. They responded by pointing out that the bill is not the time or place for such a discussion. As a result, they moved forward with the bill without the so-called “termination” clause.
In response, Trump did what he always does: throw a temper tantrum on Twitter. From New York Post:
President Trump slammed Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe for not adding to the defense bill a repeal of a law that protects social media companies from lawsuits – threatening in a tweet that “I will VETO!” the bill.
“Very sadly for our Nation, it looks like Senator @JimInhofe will not be putting the Section 230 termination clause into the Defense Bill,” the president said in a tweet late Thursday.
“So bad for our National Security and Election Integrity. Last chance to ever get it done. I will VETO!” he added.
“Section 230, which is a liability shielding gift from the U.S. to ‘Big Tech’ (the only companies in America that have it – corporate welfare!), is a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity,” he said in an earlier tweet.
“Our Country can never be safe & secure if we allow it to stand,” added Trump.
“Therefore, if the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute desk. Take back America NOW,” he said.
Of course, as anyone who knows anything about Section 230 knows, Section 230 actually promotes free speech online. In a nutshell, if someone posts something on a platform that is illegal, the platform isn’t automatically liable for the material. Instead, the liability falls to the user. Repealing such a law would drastically increase censorship because of the liability implications.
What the impeached president says it is and what it’s really all about are, naturally, two different things altogether. Still, it does punctuate how monumentally stupid it is to threaten to defund the military if he doesn’t get to kill Section 230 because Twitter decided to fact check his tweet. Ultimately, this is looking like just another mess for president elect, Joe Biden, to clean up once he takes his role as president. It’ll definitely be a reprieve for many American’s to not have every little thing blow up into yet another Twitter tantrum/tweet storm. Only 47 more days, America. Just a little bit longer and the presidential nightmare will be over.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
