Trump Just Announced What He Plans to Do If He Wins 2024 Election
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Former President Donald Trump laid out a five-point plan aimed at tackling censorship should he win the 2024 presidential election.
The Republican vowed to prevent “lawful speech” from being labeled misinformation or disinformation by the U.S. government.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump posted a video to Truth Social detailing his proposals. In it, he railed against what he called the “left-wing censorship regime.” He also cited a supposed shadowy collaborative effort to “suppress vital information on everything from elections to public health.”
“The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed, and it must happen immediately,” Trump said.
Executive Order on Federal ‘Collusion’
Trump said he plans to ban via executive order the so-called collusion between the federal government and any person, business or group that seeks to stifle lawful speech.
“I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as mis- or disinformation,” he said, adding that he’d also fire any federal bureaucrat found to have participated in “domestic censorship.”
The remarks come after Twitter CEO Elon Musk launched an effort to expose information that he said proves the platform’s previous leadership had shadow banned certain users.
DOJ Investigation
Trump further said that he’d direct the Department of Justice to launch a probe into those “involved in the new online censorship regime.” He’d also demand that guilty parties be prosecuted for any crime identified.
“I am urging House Republicans to immediately send preservation letters—and we have to do this right now—to the Biden administration, the Biden campaign and every Silicon Valley tech giant, ordering them not to destroy evidence of censorship,” Trump said.
Section 230 Revision
Trump said that if he wins in 2024, he’d ask Congress to change the qualifications for immunity protection under Section 230. Online platforms would be eligible only if they “meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness and nondiscrimination,” he said.
Section 230 is a decades-old provision of federal law that works to shield social media platforms from being sued over users’ content.
Ban Labels of Mis- and Disinformation
The way Trump sees it, the “toxic censorship industry” should be barred from labelling domestic speech disinformation and misinformation.
President Joe Biden’s administration has long taken aim at pandemic-related misinformation.
Trump also promised to starve nonprofits and academic programs of funding if they support censorship.
“If any U.S. university is discovered to have engaged in censorship activities, or election interference in the past, such as flagging social media content for removal of blacklisting, those universities should lose federal research dollars and federal student loan support for a period of five years, and maybe more,” he said.
Digital Bill of Rights
Trump also spoke in support of a “digital Bill of Rights,” including a “right to digital due process.” Under this proposal, the government would have to obtain a court order before any official could remove virtual content, he said.
Trump also floated the idea that platforms must notify users who’ve been “shadow banned” or had their account removed or otherwise restricted. Such users, he said, should be given an explanation of why the choice was made and should have the right to a timely appeal.
U.S. adults under Trump’s plan could also “opt out of content moderation and curation entirely.”
Newsweek reached out to a representative for Trump for additional comment.
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