WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s communications regulator said on Thursday it did not oppose Facebook and Twitter’s decision to block the president from their social media platforms.
“Given the circumstances we saw yesterday … I will not guess these decisions,” Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), C-SPAN, said on Thursday, according to a recording of the interview seen by Reuters .
Asked if Trump was responsible for Wednesday’s violent actions in the United States by Trump supporters, Pai said that “it was a terrible mistake to suggest that the election results, and especially the process that culminated yesterday in the Senate and House, would it could be changed in any way. It was a terrible mistake and I don’t think he should have been rewarded. “
Pai, who was appointed president by Trump in January 2017, said he would not move forward to establish new rules called for by the outgoing president to limit liability protection for social media companies, an agency spokesman confirmed.
Trump last year called on the FCC to establish new rules to limit the protection of social media companies under section 230, a provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to eliminates legal but unacceptable posts.
Pai had said on October 15 that he would go further to establish new rules, but C-SPAN said on Thursday that there was not enough time until President-elect Joe Biden took office on January 20 to continue.
On Wednesday, Trump supporters stormed the US Chapter, and the president posted a video in support of them. Both Twitter and Facebook removed the video and banned Trump from making new posts.
The FCC under Biden is unlikely to move forward, as the two current Democratic commissioners of the FCC have previously called for a rejection of Trump’s effort.
Trump also called on Congress to repeal section 230 and partially vetoed an annual defense bill because it did not include repeal. Congress lifted his veto.
Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio