Social Media Curbs Missing From Bipartisan Defense Bill Deal — Trump Threatens Veto Again

Mohit Manghnani
·2 min read
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Outgoing President Donald Trump late Thursday threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill again, despite the Republicans and the Democrats on both the House and the Senate armed services panels, reaching a bipartisan agreement. In a tweet, Trump warned that the absence of the clause to terminate Section 230 from the NDAA is bad for national security and election integrity.

Very sadly for our Nation, it looks like Senator @JimInhofe will not be putting the Section 230 termination clause into the Defense Bill. So bad for our National Security and Election Integrity. Last chance to ever get it done. I will VETO!

The Defense Bill: Trump referred to Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in the tweet. Inhofe told Bloomberg he is committed to change Section 230, but "it doesn't fit in the NDAA" because it does not deal with the military.

"My mission is to make sure we get a defense authorization bill that is good. And we have one that's good, it's ready to go," Inhofe said.

As per Bloomberg, the legislation is expected to pass despite the veto threats. The bill bolsters funding authorizations for submarines and fighter aircraft and seeks to curb racism and discrimination in the military.

The Defense Authorization Act has passed every year for the past 59 years. The bill was held up in Congress by a spat over military bases named for Confederate officers.

Section 230 relevance: It is a clause in the Communications Decency Act, which protects technology companies from liability over most content published by their users.

Trump wants measures against Section 230 in the defense bill, as he calls it, a "threat to national security." The outgoing president has repeatedly accused social media companies like Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) of being biased towards conservative voices, though they deny the charge.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia

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