Voting Rights Groups Sue To Overturn President Trump's Executive Order Targeting Social Media

Several voting rights groups on Thursday sued the Trump administration, accusing the president of targeting liability protections for social media platforms because he was unhappy Twitter decided to fact-check his inaccurate tweets about mail-in voting.

President Trump has been railing against widespread mail-in voting for the November election, saying it would lead to massive fraud even though states that have been conducting elections by mail for years have not encountered any major problems.

After Twitter flagged one of Trump’s May tweets alleging, without proof, fraud would be committed and put the results of the election in doubt, Trump issued an executive order that called on the Federal Trade Commission to “prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices” leading to online censorship and directed the attorney general to develop legislation to keep social media platforms from flagging misinformation. It also directed the Commerce Department to petition the Federal Communications Commission to craft rules narrowing the scope of liability protections.

“Voters have a constitutional right to receive accurate information about voting alternatives without government interference, especially from a self-interested president who is lying to gain an advantage in the upcoming election. So when Trump retaliates against private social media companies for fact-checking his lies, it’s not only a First Amendment violation – it’s the kind of behavior you’d expect to see from a dictator,” Kristy Parker, counsel with Protect Democracy, said in a press release.

“In the midst of a global pandemic, when far more voters than usual may opt to vote by mail to protect their personal health, the president’s authoritarian actions are especially egregious.”

In the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Protect Democracy, Common Cause, Free Press, Maplight, Rock the Vote and Voto Latino seek to have Trump’s order declared unconstitutional.

“Plaintiffs have a corresponding right to receive … curated information, free from governmental interference. ‘[W]here a speaker exists,’ the First Amendment not only protects the speaker, but ‘necessarily protects the right to receive’ the speech,” the suit argues.

“The executive order violates that right by undermining online platforms’ ability to moderate and speak and, in turn, impeding the efforts of those, like plaintiffs, who rely on and advocate for truthful and accurate information online, including about voting.”

The suit adds the executive order is “intended to coerce those platforms to adopt the president’s preferred editorial viewpoint.”

Five states – Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii – have conducted their elections by mail for years without evidence of widespread fraud.

Five states – California, Nevada, Montana, Vermont and New Jersey – have decided to automatically mail ballots to registered voters for the coming election while 17 others – Idaho, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts Connecticut and Rhode Island – will automatically mail applications for ballots.