Trump to meet with Republican state attorneys general on tech liability shield

President Trump is set to meet with a group of Republican state attorneys general about revising a law that gives tech companies a legal liability shield for content posted by third parties.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — which also gives platforms the ability to do good-faith content moderation — has increasingly come under fire from Republicans, who baselessly claim it allows the censoring of conservative viewpoints.

“Online censorship goes far beyond the issue of free speech, it’s also one of protecting consumers and ensuring they are informed of their rights and resources to fight back under the law,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement to The Hill.

“State attorneys general are on the front lines of this issue and President Trump wants to hear their perspectives.”

The Washington Post first reported on the meeting.

Trump in May signed an executive order targeting the law, which is considered foundational to the modern internet.

The order, among other things, directs a Commerce Department subagency to file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify the scope of Section 230.

That subagency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, filed that petition earlier this year and recently closed the open comment period.

The FCC now has choice over whether to consider the petition.

The executive order was signed just days after Twitter first appended a fact-checking label to one of Trump’s tweets, which falsely claimed mail-in voting would lead to a rigged election.