Judge Napolitano: ‘Twitter has freedom of speech just like you and I and the president himself’ – Fox News

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano told America's Newsroom Wednesday that President Trump is right thatsocial media platforms showbiasagainst conservatives, but added that as a private company,Twitter has the right to control speech on their platform.

The president is ...understandably not happy about his being fact-checked. I mean, nobody would [be], said Napolitano, who emphasized thatTwitter is a privately owned and publicly held company, and the First Amendment only applies togovernment-regulated institutions.

The government does not regulate Twitter, Napolitano said.

TWITTER EXEC OVERSEEING FACT CHECK EFFORT HAS HISTORY OF ANTI-TRUMP TWEETS

Earlier Wednesday,Trump warned social media giantsthat the federal government could strongly regulate or close them down if they continue to silence conservative voices, his latest salvo in a running battle with Twitterafter the platformfact-checkedone of his tweets for the first time this week.

It is unclear what authority, if any, the president was citing in his threat, but the tweets surely were meant to escalate pressure on the platform that hosted them.

Napolitano stated thatTwitter can take down, modify, or correct any user [of its platform] at once, including the president of the United States."

As for his threat to regulate or put Twitterout of business, that, of course, would require legislation which is somewhat unlikely between now and November," he added."There also would be legal issues if the effort were aimed at silencing someone who has the freedom of speech."

"Look, I dont like what they say, but Ill defend to the death their right to say it," he went on. "Under the Supreme Court's opinion that the president likes called 'Citizens United,' Twitter has freedom of speech just like you and I and the president himself.

Twitter slapped a warning label on one of Trumps tweetsfor the first time Tuesday, cautioning readers that despite the presidents claims about mail-in ballots, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in voting would increase fraud risks and that experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.

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Within minutes, the presidentaccused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post, while adding that the platform is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and vowing that I, as President, will not allow that to happen.

Twitters new warning label was issued even though a Twitter spokesperson acknowledged to Fox News that Trumps tweet had not broken any of the platforms rules, and even though some other experts have raised fraud concerns surrounding mail-in voting.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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Judge Napolitano: 'Twitter has freedom of speech just like you and I and the president himself' - Fox News