Trump vs. Twitter

Trump goes after Twitter for fact-checking his tweets; Boris Johnson's government faces down a worsening scandal.   Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters. TOP NEWS Trump goes after Twitter with a new executive order Win McNamee/Getty Images President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a new executive order aiming to make it easier for regulators to punish social media companies for alleged free speech violations in moderating their content. [New York Times / Kate Conger and Mike Issac] Specifically, the order targets Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, seeking to allow changes around a "good faith" provision that protects tech companies from lawsuits. Such changes could make it easier for Trump and others to sue platforms like Twitter. [CNN / Brian Fung, Ryan Nobles, and Kevin Liptak] But the executive order could be on shaky legal ground: As Brian Fung pointed out on Twitter, the original purpose of the law was "to ensure tech companies could *not* be sued into oblivion. For the WH to leverage 230 into obtaining the opposite outcome would be to undermine the purpose of the law." [Twitter / Brian Fung] The order was announced to reporters late Wednesday by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and follows a string of angry tweets by the president earlier this week. [Twitter / Kaitlan Collins] It also comes after Twitter made the controversial decision Tuesday to fact-check two of Trump's tweets that included misinformation about vote-by-mail efforts. [Recode / Shirin Ghaffary] Though Twitter and other social media platforms have previously been reluctant to take action in response to tweets by the president, a Twitter spokesperson told Politico Wednesday that "Covid was a game changer" in terms of the platform's ability to label misleading information as such. [Politico / Nancy Scola] Trump responded by accusing Twitter of "interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election" and "stifling FREE SPEECH" in a tweet, neither of which Twitter is actually doing. [Twitter / Donald J. Trump] That claim isn't exactly new: Trump has long accused major tech companies of anti-conservative bias, though there's no evidence that is the case. In any case, as a private company, Twitter is not governed by the First Amendment and is free to fact-check anything it likes. [Recode / Shirin Ghaffary] The Great British Scandal On Thursday, police in the United Kingdom said that Dominic Cummings, a top adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, may have violated the country's lockdown rules in a way that "that would have warranted police intervention." [CNN / Rob Picheta] That news is just the latest development in what has become a bona fide political scandal in the UK. On Friday last week, it was reported that Cummings, in violation of a national lockdown order, took a road trip in late March to his parents' home. [Slate / Joshua Keating] It was subsequently reported that Cummings made a second trip in April and he has since faced calls for his resignation from across the political spectrum. [The Guardian / Matthew Weaver] Johnson has previously been criticized for his government's coronavirus response, but the Cummings scandal has cut into his support in a way other controversies have not. In recent polling, almost 60 percent of the country believes Cummings should resign and Johnson's support has slipped by 20 points. [NYT / Mark Landler and Stephen Castle] Earlier this week, a Conservative MP, Douglas Ross, resigned as a junior minister over Johnson's defense of Cummings. "I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones," he said in a statement. "I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right." [Twitter / Douglas Ross] Still, as Politico reported Tuesday, it's unlikely that Cummings will be forced out for his error; if he does go, it will probably be a mutual decision reached by Cummings and Johnson. [Politico / Charlie Cooper and Emilio Casalicchio] For more on the scandal, check out Vox's Worldly podcast here. Vox's free podcasts, videos, and explanatory journalism play a vital role in helping many understand developing stories. Make a contribution today: vox.com/support-now. MISCELLANEOUS How the treatment of protesters marching in Minneapolis underscores the way police use violence against people of color [Vox / Li Zhou and Kainaz Amaria] The world isn't going to achieve herd immunity from the coronavirus anytime soon. [NYT / Nadja Popovich and Margot Sanger-Katz] In a possible conflict of interest, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff has a financial interest in companies involved in the US coronavirus response. [NPR / Tim Mak] How the Trump campaign is rewriting the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic with Facebook ads, tweets, and more. [Washington Post / Elyse Samuels and Meg Kelly] VERBATIM "The video footage is shorthand for desensitization. Ask yourself why you're even comfortable looking at a video of someone being murdered. Then ask yourself why you'd share it with everyone you know. If it was a dog you wouldn't. So what is the reasoning?" [Akilah Hughes on the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer / Twitter] WATCH THIS Is it safe to go to the beach? What about a park? Is a heavy-breathing runner going to infect you as they pass you? In short: How do you go outside safely? [YouTube / Madeline Marshall and Sigal Samuel] Read more from Vox   Let Hong Kong move to America   The vital missing piece of the Democrats' stimulus bill   The unbearable grief of Black mothers   Trump's purge of inspectors general, explained   Are coronavirus cases in the US actually going down? Here's what we know.

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