Trump orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation

No federal officer, employee, or agent can unconstitutionally restrict the free speech of any American citizen, an early step towards keeping his campaign promise to dismantle what he called government "censorship" of U.S. citizens.

The president's executive order was issued only a short time after he was sworn in to a second term. This comes after Trump and his supporters have accused the federal government of forcing social media companies to remove lawful posts that are deemed to contain misinformation.

The order also directs the attorney general, in coordination with other executive branch leaders, to look into whether federal government actions during the four years of the Biden administration may have restricted free speech and suggest "corrective measures" based on the results.

President Trump signed an order, alongside other executive actions, at the Capital One Arena, revealing his eagerness to take a hard stance against what he refers to as the "censorship cartel" on his first day in office.

Support for this stance is strong among his followers, who believe the federal government has unfairly focused on silencing lawful dialogue from conservative voices.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently claimed that high-ranking officials from the Biden administration coerced his employees into unfairly "censoring" content during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elon Musk, owner of the social platform X, has also accused the FBI of improperly pressuring Twitter to suppress a story about Hunter Biden during its time under the company.

They acted in compliance with government pressure.

There is no text provided. Please provide the text you would like me to paraphrase in United States English.

.

It remains unclear what impact this order will have on the efforts of several US agencies to investigate false claims threatening election security, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, commonly known as CISA.

She is open to limiting the agency's activities if that's what Congress has in mind.

stating that it “does not censor, has never censored.”

Nina Jankowicz, CEO of the American Sunlight Project, stated that Trump "seeks vengeance for an insult that was never given."

The rule has been criticized by conservatives, said the order emboldens foreign actors and others “who use disinformation as a tool to destabilize our country and profiteer off of lies.”

Promoted online by American citizens.

The president has marketed himself as a champion of free speech from the early days of his presidency, accusing the social media platform, then known as Twitter, of attacking him by adding fact-check labels to his tweets concerning mail-in ballots.

At the same time, he often targets the press, referring to journalists as "the enemy of the people," and has threatened to take action against the news media in his second term, including suggesting that the broadcast licenses of certain television news networks should be revoked.

After having a tumultuous past with social media companies, Trump has recently formed an alliance with the tech moguls who control the online platforms where Americans interact with one another.

Below are some interesting facts about the CEOs of major tech companies, including Elon Musk, who owns X, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and Sundar Pichai, who is in charge of Google and owns YouTube. He takes credit for TikTok's return to the U.S. market and has welcomed TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to the Capitol for his swearing-in ceremony.

___

Associated Press is solely responsible for all content.