Trump looks for help to rein in tech giants

President Trump is doubling down on his attacks against Silicon Valley, fueled by his party’s conviction that social media companies are working to silence right-wing voices.

That hostility has reportedly led the White House to consider an executive order that would task the federal government with overseeing social media platforms’ handling of online political speech.

And the escalation comes as Trump is also trying to push the tech industry on other fronts, including to do more to help law enforcement find and stop extremists online, following two mass shootings last weekend.

“We’re going to be very tough with them,” the president told reporters Friday ahead of a meeting with tech companies over online extremism.

“They treat conservatives, Republicans totally different than they treat others. And they can’t do that,” he said.

CNN on Friday reported the contents of a draft summary of the executive order Trump is considering, which would reportedly push the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to do more to police social media companies’ content-moderation decisions.

Under the tentative executive action, titled “Protecting Americans from Online Censorship,” the FCC would be tasked with adopting rules that would clarify when social media companies’ content-moderation decisions are legally protected.

The FTC would also take public comments on platforms’ moderating efforts and work with the FCC to investigate those practices.

The FCC and FTC both declined to comment.