WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The main communications regulator for the President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Thursday that he did not oppose the decisions of Facebook and Twitter to block the president from their social media platforms.
“Given the circumstances we saw yesterday … I will not question these decisions,” said the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, to C-SPAN on Thursday, according to a recording of the interview seen by Reuters.
Asked whether Trump was responsible for Wednesday’s violent actions on the United States Capitol by Trump supporters, Pai said that “it was a terrible mistake to suggest that the election results, and particularly the process that culminated yesterday in the Senate and the House, could be changed in any way. It was a terrible mistake and I don’t think it should be tolerated. “
Pai, who was named president by Trump in January 2017, said he will not move forward to set new rules sought by the outgoing president to limit liability protections for social media companies, an agency spokesman confirmed.
Trump last year demanded that the FCC establish new rules to limit protections for social media companies under Section 230, a clause of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows remove legal but questionable posts.
Pai had said on October 15 that he would move on to set new rules, but told C-SPAN on Thursday that there was not enough time before President-elect Joe Biden took office on January 20 to continue.
On Wednesday, Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol and the president posted a video supporting them. Both Twitter and Facebook removed the video and prevented Trump from making new posts.
The FCC under Biden is unlikely to move forward, as the two current Democratic FCC commissioners had previously called for the rejection of Trump’s effort.
Trump also asked Congress to repeal Section 230 and vetoed an annual defense bill in part because it did not include the repeal. Congress overturned its veto.
Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio