Twitter made a huge mistake

Twitter may have intended merely to run a fact-check and prevent what the left-leaning staff at the tech company think of as misinformation. However, the Big Tech platform just gave a powerful argument to reformers who want to strike the liability protections Twitter enjoys under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Under that law, Twitter and other online platforms are not considered “publishers” or “speakers” and are therefore not held liable for the information they host. Yet an action like this, taking sides in a political and legal dispute where there are experts on both sides, arguably makes Twitter a “speaker” or a “publisher” and therefore liable, at least for this act of pseudo-censorship

Twitter is not regulated by the First Amendment. It doesn’t have to protect free speech. Yet Trump’s statement that the platform is “completely stifling free speech” expresses due outrage over Twitter’s stifling of his speech. Twitter did not violate the First Amendment, but it arguably violated Section 230, stripping the central argument for its special legal status.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/05/26/twitter-is-completely-stifling-free-speech-trump-says-after-biased-fact-check-on-vote-by-mail-n431853