WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has filed a motion asking the court to file a lawsuit against the president’s executive order targeting social media companies, calling it a “deep misunderstanding” “, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: Facebook, Google and Twitter logos can be seen in this combination photo from Reuters files. REUTERS / File Photos
The lawsuit was filed in June by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a Washington-based tech group funded by Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Twitter Inc. It marked the first major legal test of President Donald Trump’s directive.
Trump issued an executive order against social media companies in May in an attempt to regulate platforms where he has been criticized, just days after Twitter took the rare step of actually checking one of his tweets about voting in mail. Trump threatens to destroy or weaken a law known as Section 230, which protects Internet companies from litigation over content posted by users.
The lawsuit by CDT claimed that Trump’s executive order on social media violates the rights of the First Amendment of companies on social media, will cool future online speech and reduce the ability of Americans to speak freely online.
The administration states that the executive order directs only government agencies, and not private companies, to act.
“The EO challenged here does not impose any obligations on any particular party,” the motion filed by the Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which was seen by Reuters, said.
“It advises executives to take steps that could lead various agencies to … investigate allegations that major online social media platforms have shown political bias in moderating content,” the motion said.
The lawsuit reflects long-running tensions between the Trump administration and companies on social media that have become key tools in Trump’s political arsenal.
Avery Gardiner, CDT’s attorney general, called Trump’s executive order “unconstitutional.” The CDT lawsuit alleges that the White House violated the First Amendment, which prohibits government officials from seeking revenge against an individual or entity for participating in protected speech.
“Instead of actually trying to address the merits of the issues, and to take action in court that will reflect the harsh constitutional deformities of the executive order, it is accustomed to legal maneuver,” Gardiner said Wednesday, referring to the movement of the Trump administration.
The CDT has negotiated a letter of intent with the DOJ. CDT will submit the response by the end of August and the government will likely respond by September 21, she said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said the administration had moved to dismiss the case because “it is not a valid legal argument.”
“The letter from the left-wing lobbying organization seems to suggest that it does not understand how administrative action works or may not understand the nature of the justice system,” he told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter called the executive order a “reactionary and politicized approach to a constitution.” It declined to comment on the CDT lawsuit. Google and Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump’s mandate seeks to channel complaints about political bias to the Federal Trade Commission. At a recent Senate session, the bureau’s chairman, Joseph Simons, said the FTC has not taken any action to uphold the mandate.
The U.S. Commerce Department has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for new transparency rules in how social media companies moderate content after Trump’s executive order directed the action. Earlier this month, FCC President Ajit Pai agreed to open the petition for public comment for 45 days.
Report by Nandita Bose, Washington, Additional Report by David Shepardson, Washington; Edited by Ken Li and Matthew Lewis
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