JUSTICE - No. 65

37 Fall 2020 types of misleading information.” 44 Shortly after this expansion of its labelling policy was announced, Twitter labelled a couple of tweets of U.S. President Trump that claimed that mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Twitter labelled these tweets: “Get the facts about mailin ballots”and redirected users to news articles about Trump's claim. 45 In response, Trump tweeted a call for revocation of the safe harbor provision for internet providers in U.S. legislation. 46 Shortly after Twitter labelled his tweets, Trump issued an executive order which ordered the Secretary of Commerce to file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission requesting regulations to clarify the scope of this provision. 47 President Trump expressed his concern that his tweets had been labelled, but not the tweets of those critical of him. In his view, the labelling was partisan and not done in good faith and therefore should not have immunity. 48 However, in general there is no liability for taking sides in a political debate, even if the Twitter labelling can be characterized in that way. Trump’s order had the effect of generating controversy around the safe harbor provision for internet providers in U.S. law. There are now several bills before Congress proposing amendments to the safe harbor provision. Removal of safe harbor would not be specific to antisemitism. However, once safe harbor is gone in general, it would also be gone for antisemitism in particular. If platforms and providers are considered publishers, then antisemitism on their sites would have the same legal consequences as antisemitism in traditional publications. Legislation introduced into the U.S. Senate on June 24, 2020 — the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act — had bipartisan support. It proposed to amend the Communications Decency Act to require service providers to inform users about content allowed on their platforms and to provide a process to dispute content moderation decisions. 49 Large online platforms would have to notify users of moderation decisions within 14 days, and allows consumers to appeal those decisions. 50 Facebook, which has not been labelling Trump postings, has become as much an object of criticism for its non- use of labels on Trump postings as Twitter has been for its use of labels for Trump tweets. In response to this criticism, Facebook announced in late June 2020 a policy to label posts that infringed on its rules. 51 Part of this policy stated: We believe there is a public interest in allowing a wider range of free expression in people's posts than in paid ads. ... today we're prohibiting a wider category of hateful content in ads. Specifically, we're expanding our ads policy to prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others. 44. Yoel Roth and Nick Pickles, “Updating our Approach to Misleading Information,” T WITTER B LOG (May 11, 2020), available at https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/ product/2020/updating‑our‑approach‑to‑misleading‑ information.html 45. Elizabeth Dwoskin,“Twitter labels Trump’s tweets with a fact check for the first time,”W ASHINGTON P OST , May 27, 2020, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/ technology/2020/05/26/trump‑twitter‑label‑fact‑check/ 46. Bobby Allyn, “As Trump Targets Twitter's Legal Shield, Experts Have AWarning,”N ATIONAL P UBLIC R ADIO , May 30, 2020, available at https://www.npr.org/2020/05/30/865813960/ as-trump-targets-twitters-legal-shield-experts-have-a- warning 47. “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship,” W HITE H OUSE , May 28, 2020, available at https://www. whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order- preventing-online-censorship/ 48. Shannon Bond “Trump Accuses Social Media of Anti- Conservative Bias After Twitter Marks His Tweets,”N ATIONAL P UBLIC R ADIO , May 27, 2020, available at https://www.npr . org/2020/05/27/863422722/trump-accuses-social-media- of-anti-conservative-bias-after-twitter-marks-his-tweets 49. U.S. Senate, Mr. Schatz (for himself and Mr. Thune),“A Bill [t]o require transparency, accountability, and protections for consumers online,” available at https:// www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/OLL20612.pdf 50. U.S. Senate Press Release, “Schatz,Thune Introduce New Legislation to Update Section 230” (June 24, 2020), available at https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/ schatz-thune-introduce-new-legislation-to-update-section -230-strengthen-rules-transparency-on-online-content -moderation-hold-internet-companies-accountable-for- moderation-practices 51. Elizabeth Culliford and Sheila Dang,“Facebook announces plan to label newsworthy posts that break rules,”G LOBAL N EWS , June 26, 2020, available at https://globalnews.ca/ news/7114333/facebook-labels-voting-information/