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News Tip: Trump’s Social Media Order ‘Threatens To Do Far More Harm Than Good,’ Expert Says

Sanford professor Phil Napoli comments on President Trump's executive order aimed at social media companies

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order Thursday aimed at social media companies in response to Twitter adding a fact-checking notice to his tweets. Duke University professor Phil Napoli, who studies media regulation and policy, is available to comment.

Quotes:
“I think a compelling case can be made that social media platforms are in need of some form of government regulation,” says Phil Napoli, a professor of public policy at Duke University who researches media institutions, media regulation and policy. “Other democracies have taken steps in this direction. Even Mark Zuckerberg himself has argued that regulation is necessary.”

“Unfortunately, this initiative coming from the White House threatens to do far more harm than good to the cause of responsible, constitutional and effective government regulation of social media. This is because the most potent argument that opponents of social media regulation have at their disposal is the concern that any regulatory intervention can be used primarily as a political tool by the administration in power. Which is exactly what these actions from the White House appear to be.”

“They’ve been motivated by the act of fact-checking, which is basically the last bastion of objective, non-partisan journalism in this country. They’ve been motivated by the act of counter-speech -- the notion of ‘the more speech the better’ – that has long been the rallying cry of First Amendment purists, particularly those who have advocated against platforms’ efforts to police disinformation and hate speech.

“So, to the extent that the motivations for this regulatory intervention seem to run counter to basic democratic principles, it’s hard to imagine that it will lead to the kind of measured, non-partisan discussion of social media regulation that we need.”

Bio:
Philip Napoli, professor of public policy, researches media institutions, media regulation and policy. He has testified on these topics to the U.S. Senate, the FCC and the FTC. Napoli is the author of the book, “Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age” (2019).
https://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/napoli-philip-michael

For additional comment, contact Phil Napoli at:
philip.napoli@duke.edu

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Media Contact:
Steve Hartsoe
steve.hartsoe@duke.edu
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Duke experts on a variety of political topics can be found at https://communications.duke.edu/2020-election-experts/.

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