President Trump Has Limited Tools To Push Back Against Social Media

President Donald Trump fired off a missive in the wee hours Nov 6 suggesting yet again that social media platforms should be punished for labeling his tweets about vote counts as misleading and hiding a number of his posts. "Twitter is out of control, made possible through the government gift of Section 230!" he posted on Twitter. President Trump now likely has little time and few avenues to strike down a liability shield that he says gives the platform undeserved protection from legal action. It's still possible a Federal Communications Commission rulemaking could go forward during the remainder of Trump's first term, but supporters of Section 230 reform have a very short time frame to push it through. "He can continue to pressure the FCC to do something. That's the beginning and end of what he can do. This is really up to Congress and the courts," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.