Washington Post: “The Department of Justice will ask Congress on Wednesday to adopt a new law that would hold Facebook, Google and Twitter legally accountable for the way they handle some controversial content on the Web, as the Trump administration ratchets up its attacks on social-media sites entering the 2020 election. The new request from the Justice Department is expected to come in the form of a rare, legislative proposal to be shared with lawmakers that specifically seeks to whittle down Section 230, a decades-old provision of federal law that spares websites from being held liable for content posted by their users — and their own decisions about what posts, photos and videos to leave up or take down.”
“The proposal comes as President Trump is expected to huddle with Republican state attorneys general Wednesday at a meeting where he is expected to call on state officials to use state laws to potentially penalize social media sites over allegations that they censor conservatives online. The attacks of political bias threaten to complicate any congressional action on the proposed reforms to Section 230, despite the fact Democrats and Republicans generally agree that social-media sites should be held to greater account for failing to police the web against a wide array of harmful content. The Trump administration’s moves are likely to inflame tensions between Trump and the tech industry in a heated election year. Trump has continued to ratchet up his attacks, particularly as social media sites have grown more aggressive in responding to — and in some cases removing — his most controversial comments from their sites and services.”