Trump blasts Biden ‘censorship’ in executive order ‘restoring free speech’
Donald Trump’s pardoning of 1,500 people and their accomplices for the storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January, 2021 – with acusations that his own rhetoric contributed to the riot widespread – has put the US ideal of free speech back at the top of the agenda among US observers and legal experts.
In the executive order “Restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship" – one of the 78 Trump signed on the day of his second inauguration on 20 January – he writes that the previous administration had “trampled free speech rights”.
Trump vows to act with 'historic speed and strength' via executive orders
He accuses Biden's administration of "censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms" by pressuring social media companies to "moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve".
The order goes on to attack Biden's attempts to fight disinformation, saying these were a ploy to advance "the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate" and declares: "Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society."
'Enemies of the people'
He has also called journalists the "enemy of the people" and launched defamation cases against several large US media outlets, including ABC News, CBS, CNN and publisher Simon & Schuster.
Read more on RFI English
Read also:
France criticises 'digital oligarchy' after Twitter, Facebook shut out Trump
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones shares videos via French start-up
Apple blocks French classical music station's app after erotic broadcast