230

230?

Yes. Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which Trump is trying to nullify by executive fiat.  It's the part of the law that shields Internet platforms from lawsuits against what their users post.  Like Trump.  It also allows platforms to moderate content and delete or flag whatever they feel violates their own standards.  So when Twitter dared to fact-check one of his tweets, he threatened to shut down social media - which, perversely, would deny him his strongest communication tool.  Then when he advocated violence to combat the violence of the Gorge Floyd riots, Twitter branded it as incendiary speech. The White House responded by saying that he didn't mean what he said, though he clearly said what he meant - he wants to shoot those who loot.  Especially if they're on Fifth Avenue.

Trump can't close down Twitter (which might be a good thing) or close down Facebook (which, given that I connected with a lot of the top models of the 1980s through Facebook, would definitely be a bad thing), but the mere fact that he wants to suppress free speech is chilling.  Not that it's anything new, of course; he's been wanting to do that since January 20, 2017.  

Interestingly, Joe Biden agrees with Trump that Section 230 should be repealed to make social media platforms more responsible for a lot of the misinformation posted on their domains.  You'd agree with Trump, too, if you, like Biden, had progressives who literally hate you spreading since-debunked stories about your aggressive womanizing.  But if social media platforms start policing content in order to avoid lawsuits, it will make them less free for their users.  Sure, libelous comments and false stories can be removed more easily, but what about other circumstances?  If Volkswagen of America, for example, had a problem with me pestering the company on social media to get it to bring the base eighth-generation Golf to the U.S. and decided it was a form of harassment, would Facebook or Twitter, without Section 230, block my posts on that subject to avoid a lawsuit from Volkswagen of America?

I say, let people post what they want, but make sure that people can tell the difference between legitimate news and conspiracy theories, and allow the social media platforms to maintain their standards as they have been doing.  Misinformation will still get out, of course, but social media users should be educated to separate the wheat from the chaff.  I do so, and so I ignore any posts linking Hillary Clinton with a child-prostitution ring.  Also, I ignore anything Trump tweets.

As I said, Trump can't close social media, so don't pay attention to his rants about that.  Pay attention instead to his decision to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic that has affected this country more than any other.