Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to reports that President Trump will be issuing an executive order regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act:

“Trump’s executive order on social media is a silly distraction from a serious debate,” said Economic Liberties’ Executive Director Sarah Miller. “This executive order is basically a request to independent agencies, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, to act in some vague manner. The President cannot single-handedly change a law, he cannot order independent agencies to act, and his executive order reflects that.”

“There are serious proposals in Congress from members on both sides of the aisle attempting to grapple with the difficult problem presented by Section 230. There are important reasons to restructure the law to make the web more open and free, but this executive order is a distraction and we should all have learned to ignore distractions like this from Trump by now,” added Miller.

For more details on Section 230, and the various policy choices needed to rein in big tech, see Economic Liberties’ paper on the issue: “Addressing Facebook and Google’s Harms Through a Regulated Competition Approach.”

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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Economic Liberties works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. AELP believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.