President Trump took aim at Twitter late Thursday, saying it was putting out false trends, censoring Republican lawmakers and creating a matter of national security.
He called for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides a legal shield for publishers on third-party content, to be terminated.
“Twitter is sending out totally false “Trends” that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world. They make it up, and only negative “stuff”. Same thing will happen to Twitter as is happening to @FoxNews daytime. Also, big Conservative discrimination!” the president tweeted.
“For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!” he added.
Mr. Trump also defended Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who pushed for an informal hearing earlier this week by GOP lawmakers in the keystone state over potential election fraud.
The Republicans had Mr. Trump’s legal team present evidence of election irregularities that they say led to presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden being named the winner of Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes.
“Wow! Twitter bans highly respected Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano after he did a great job of leading a hearing on the 2020 Election fraud. They and the Fake News, working together, want to SILENCE THE TRUTH. Can’t let that happen. This is what Communist countries do!” the president tweeted on Friday morning.
Twitter later issued a statement saying Mr. Mastriano’s account was suspended by mistake.
“This account was mistakenly suspended for perceived violations of our impersonation policy. This was an error. We have immediately reversed the decision and the account has been reinstated,” a spokesperson for the company said.
• Andrew Blake contributed to this report.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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