President Trump signs an order against social media companies

The US President signed the order in his office.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order against social media platforms.

An executive order is, 'a written order issued by the president to the federal government which does not require congressional approval," according to BBC News's journalists in Washington DC. That means, basically, that an executive order is a law the President introduces that doesn't have to be voted on my other politicians.

This new order would give regulators (the people making sure everyone sticks to the rules) the power to take legal action against companies like Facebook and Twitter, for things like the way they manage content on their platforms.

What has just happened between Trump and Twitter?

President Trump often complains about social media companies.

He says that they 'censor,' or try to hide the things that he and other politicians say, and that they have "unchecked power."

This decision by Trump is thought to be because Twitter added a 'fact-check box' to two of his recent tweets, encouraging users to check the facts before they believe what is written.

The new order is likely to face legal challenges before it becomes law, so Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies aren't affected by it just yet.

Read on below to find out more about why this happened and what it might mean for social media companies...

Why is Donald Trump doing this?

Two of Trump's tweet were flagged by Twitter for potentially sharing 'fake news'

President Trump uses social media a lot!

In the past his controversial opinions on platforms like Twitter have caused quite a bit of trouble for him.

In March 2020 Twitter introduced 'fact-boxes' to, they say, "help people understand the media's authenticity and to provide additional context."

Twitter adds these boxes to any tweets they think might be sharing information that is fake or not factually accurate, or content that has 'synthetic media' in it - meaning edited or computer generated video or audio. Twitter's boxes provide a link for users to find out more.

As well as 'fact-checking' President Trump, this week Twitter used this box on a tweet from a Chinese government spokesman who said that the US army might have brought coronavirus to Wuhan, in China.

In the past Twitter had come under fire from people saying it was not doing enough to prevent the spread of fake news.

Donald Trump has been very vocal about 'fake news' on social media, saying after signing the executive order that he is only on twitter to help correct fake news he believes he sees. The President's response to his tweet's being fact-checked by Twitter was to threaten to, "shut down" social media companies.

What does the order mean?

The main aim of Trump's new order would be to take away some of the legal protection that social media companies have in certain situations, in the United States.

The order refers to the Communications Decency Act, which is an American law that provides social media companies some protection from what people say on their platforms.

Under Section 230 of this law, it says that social networks are not responsible for the content posted by its users.

However, it does say that social media companies can engage in "good-Samaritan blocking", such as removing content that is offensive, harassment or violent.

Trump's order wants to "remove or change" Section 230, and wants to point out that legal protection would not apply to social media companies if they edit or change the content posted by their users.

The order could also:

• Get the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC are the regulators of things like television companies in the US) to be clear about what type of content blocking would not be in line with the service providers terms and conditions.

• Review government advertising on social-media sites and whether they should impose viewpoint-based restrictions.

• Bring back the White House's "tech bias reporting tool" which lets people report unfair treatment by social media companies.

What do the Social Media companies think?

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey

Well... they're not very happy about it.

Twitter said the order was: "a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law," saying that Section 230: "protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it's underpinned by democratic values".

Google, which owns YouTube, said changing Section 230 would: "hurt America's economy and its global leadership on internet freedom."

In an interview earlier this week, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said censoring a social media platform would not be the "right reflex" for a government which was concerned about censorship.

"I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online," said Mr Zuckerberg.

"I think in general private companies probably shouldn't be - especially these platform companies - shouldn't be in the position of doing that."

Those comments put Facebook's boss in opposition to Twitter's boss Jack Dorsey, who said his company will, "continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.

Matthew Feeney of the Cato Institute said: "In the long run, this conservative campaign against social media companies could have a devastating effect on the freedom of speech,".

Donald Trump might have promised "big action" in response to Twitter - however it will be a long time before any real action, or changes happen.