Donald Trump today accused Twitter of “conservative discrimination” while once again criticizing how topics trend on the platform.
In a series of tweets, the outgoing president also suggested a law that gives the social media companies a degree of legal immunity against illegal content uploaded by their users—Section 230—should be revoked on grounds of national security.
“Twitter is sending out totally false ‘Trends’ that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world,” Trump wrote on Friday.
“They make it up, and only negative ‘stuff’. Same thing will happen to Twitter as is happening to @FoxNews daytime. Also, big Conservative discrimination.”
In a second post doubling down on previous threats against the law, he added: “For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!”
Trump did not clarify in his tweet why Section 230 was considered a national security issue. The White House has been contacted for comment by Newsweek.
There is no evidence to suggest that Twitter is manipulating or falsifying trends, but it’s far from the first time Trump has questioned how the website’s algorithms work.
Twitter says trend results are tailored for the user, based on who a person follows, their interests and location. “This algorithm identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion on Twitter,” it explains in a blog.
But Trump has repeatedly suggested the algorithms are being rigged against him, while making vague references to Section 230, a provision of the Communication Decency Act 1996 that helps Facebook and Twitter to exist in their current forms.
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