WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s leading communications regulator said on Thursday he did not object to decisions by Facebook and Twitter to block the president from their social media platforms.
“Given the circumstances we saw yesterday … I’m not going to guess the decisions,” Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told C-SPAN on Thursday, according to a poll by Reuters have seen. .
Asked if Trump was responsible for the violent actions at the US Capitol on Wednesday by Trump supporters, Pai said: “It was a terrible mistake to suggest that the outcome of the election, and especially the process that took place yesterday in “The Senate and the House could not be changed in any way. It was a terrible mistake and one that I do not think should be conceded.”
Pai, who was named chairman by Trump in January 2017, said he would not move forward to draft new rules called for by the outgoing president to limit the protection of liability to social media companies. a spokesman for the agency confirmed.
Trump last year demanded that the FCC set new rules to limit the protection of social media companies under section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects companies from liability for content posted by their users, and allowing them to remove legitimate but offensive posts.
Pai said on October 15 that he would move forward to set new rules, but told C-SPAN on Thursday that there was not enough time before President-elect Joe Biden took office on January 20 to continue.
Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and the president posted a video supporting them. Both Twitter and Facebook removed the video and barred Trump from making new posts.
The FCC under Biden is unlikely to continue, as the two current Democratic FCC commissioners have earlier asked to reject Trump’s attempt.
Trump also urged Congress to repeal Article 230 and partly veto an annual defense bill because it does not include the repeal. Congress dominated its veto.
Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio