President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Congress hold Silicon Vally’s top tech companies accountable.
“If Congress does not bring justice to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with executive orders,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “In Washington, it has been EVERYTHING TALKING and NOT HAVING ACTED for years, and the people of our country are fed up and tired!”
The president spoke as executives from Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple began digitally testifying in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the power of online platforms and censorship issues.
The Commerce Department filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, challenging regulation of Silicon Valley’s big social media companies.
“President Trump will continue to fight unfair, politically biased, non-US, and censorship of Americans online,” said the statement by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
In May, President Trump signed an executive order to verify that social media companies censor conservatives online. He said:
They have had an uncontrolled power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter almost any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences. There is no precedent in the history of the United States for such a small number of corporations to control such a large sphere of human interaction.
If Congress does not bring justice to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with executive orders. In Washington, it has been EVERYTHING TALKING and NOT HAVING ACTED for years, and the people of our country are fed up and tired!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
