Trump issues wave of orders on TikTok, DOGE, social media, AI and energy

Trump said in November that DOGE “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies.” Yesterday’s executive order says the department will focus on “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize government efficiency and productivity.”

Federal agencies will need to collaborate with DOGE. “Among other things, the USDS Administrator must work with agency heads to promote interoperability among agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization “, the order states. “Agency heads shall take all necessary actions, in coordination with the USDS Administrator and to the greatest extent consistent with law, to ensure that USDS has full and timely access to all records not agency classified information, software systems and IT systems must adhere to rigorous data protection standards.

Discourse on social networks

Trump took aim at social media in an order titled Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. The order takes aim at the Biden administration’s practice of contacting social media platforms about content that government officials say should have been moderated or blocked.

In 2023, the Supreme Court blocked an injunction that would have blocked the Biden administration from pressuring social media companies to remove content. The justices expressed skepticism during oral arguments over whether federal government officials should face limits on their communications with social media networks like Facebook and ruled in favor of the Biden administration in June 2024.

Despite Biden’s court victory, Trump’s order describes the Biden administration’s approach as a threat to the First Amendment.

“Over the past four years, the previous administration trampled on the right to free speech by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting significant coercive pressure on third parties, such as advertising companies. social media, to moderate, distort, or otherwise suppress speech that the federal government has not approved,” Trump’s order states. “Under the guise of combating “disinformation,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation,” the federal government has violated the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in ways that have advances the government’s preferred discourse on important public issues. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.