Trump Signs Order to End ‘Government Censorship’ of Social Media

REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez and Elon Musk attend a candlelight dinner hosted by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. U.S., January 19, 2025.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order intended to “immediately stop all government censorship,” a sweeping action that could chill years of efforts to combat the proliferation of false information online.

The order bans federal officials from any conduct that “would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” It also prohibits taxpayer resources from being used to “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech” of Americans.

Conservatives have argued in multiple lawsuits that efforts to limit the spread of false information online about public health and elections amount to illegal censorship. The order will create legal uncertainty for government officials who communicate with tech companies.

“Under the guise of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the order said.

Trump’s order could have an immediate impact on years of efforts to bolster coordination between Silicon Valley and the government to combat misinformation about elections, natural disasters and public health. The order is the latest victory for conservatives’ years-long campaign against content moderation on social media, as tech companies also take a more hands-off posture toward misinformation on their services.

The order also directs the attorney general to investigate whether the Biden administration engaged in censorship of Americans’ views. It directs the Justice Department to write a report about its findings as well as recommendations for next steps.

Ahead of Trump’s second term, many tech companies pulled back from their efforts to fact-check or remove misinformation from their platforms, and CEOs such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai attended Trump’s inauguration as they seek to build inroads with his administration.

Conservatives for years have accused tech companies of suppressing their views online, citing the companies’ bans of Trump in the fallout of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. They have also alleged that the Biden administration’s efforts to pressure tech companies to remove misinformation about coronavirus vaccinations amounted to illegal government interference in Americans’ speech.

These claims were at the center of a lawsuit that several Republicans – including Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – brought against the Biden White House and several government agencies. In a 6-3 ruling this summer, the Supreme Court rejected the effort to significantly limit federal officials from pressuring social media companies to remove posts. The court found that the states and individuals failed to prove they were harmed by the communications.

The Biden Justice Department argued that limits on the administration’s communications with the tech companies would narrow the government’s ability to promote public safety, such as in the face of public health emergencies or natural disasters. As flames engulfed large swaths of Los Angeles this month, conspiracy theories and partisan misinformation about the disaster surged on tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X and other social networks.

Trump is instituting this order as tech companies roll back their own policies intended to curb falsehoods online. Zuckerberg announced this month that the company will dismantle its fact-checking program in the United States. The moves come more than two years after Musk purchased Twitter and unwound the company’s Trust and Safety initiatives in the name of advancing a “free speech agenda.”

Trump has signaled that this is probably not his last action on alleged censorship. In a video released days after the election, Trump also promised to fire every federal employee who has engaged in censorship. Trump also said he would call on Republicans to enact a bill that would upend Section 230: tech companies’ prized legal shield that ensures they are not legally responsible for the posts people share on their services.

He promised to “break up the entire toxic censorship industry,” saying that the federal government should stop funding nonprofits and universities that engage in flagging social media posts for removal.