Trump to sign executive order on social media companies

US President Trump has signed an executive order on social media companies, the White House has announced.

As the Washington Post earlier reported, this "could open the door for federal regulators to punish Facebook, Google and Twitter for the way they police content online, issuing a major broadside against Silicon Valley that quickly triggered wide-ranging political opposition and threats of a legal challenge."

Key comments 

• Trump says the choices twitter makes when it chooses to edit and blacklist are editorial positions.
• Trump says he expects legal challenges to order but assumes administration will do well in them.
• Trump says what twitter chooses to fact check or ignore is nothing more than political activism and is inappropriate.
• Trump says executive order on social media companies will mean they will no longer have a liability shield.
• Trump says he is directing attorney general to cooperate with states to enforce their own laws against what he terms the deceptive business practices of social media companies.
• Trump says social media companies are tantamount to a monopoly.
• Trump says he will pursue legislation in addition to his executive order.
• US attorney general Barr says trump administration is preparing legislative proposal on social media companies.
• Barr says he will seek litigation against social media companies as well as legislation.

Trump's attempt to stamp out political bias 

Meanwhile, Trump has portrayed the expected order, the early details of which were first reported by The Washington Post late Wednesday, as an attempt to stamp out political bias on the part of the country’s largest social media platforms.

His directive comes days after Twitter steered viewers of some of the president’s tweets to news articles that fact-checked his claims, a move Trump said was a form of censorship, The Washington Post reported.