UPDATE 1-FCC chair says agency will take public comment on Trump social media petition
UPDATE 1-FCC chair says agency will take public comment on Trump social media petition
(Adds more comments on petition, including Pai, Starks, background)
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission will take public comment for 45 days on a petition filed by the Trump administration seeking new transparency rules in how social media companies moderate content, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on Monday.
Pai rejected calls from Democrats that he summarily dismiss the petition without public comment. The decision came after President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to file the petition after Twitter Inc in May warned readers to fact-check his posts about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting.
Pai has said previously he does not see a role for the FCC to regulate websites like Twitter, Facebook Inc or Alphabet Inc's Google, but said on Monday the FCC "should welcome vigorous debate - not foreclose it. The American people deserve to have a say, and we will give them that chance."
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter that Congress, not the FCC, should act. "Perhaps when comments are in we can package up the whole docket and send it over to Congress-where this debate belongs," Starks wrote.
The July 27 NTIA petition asks the FCC to limit protections for social media companies under Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.
The NTIA wants the FCC to require social media companies to "publicly disclose accurate information regarding its content-management mechanisms" to "enable users to make more informed choices about competitive alternatives."
Trump, a Republican who is running for re-election on Nov. 3, has repeatedly expressed anger at social media companies.
The FCC could take a year or longer to finalize any rules.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;)
(添加更多關於請願的評論，包括Pai，Starks，背景)
大衞·謝帕德森著
路透華盛頓8月3日電-美國聯邦通信委員會(Federal Communications Commission)主席阿吉特·派(Ajit Pai)週一表示，聯邦通信委員會(Federal Communications Commission)將就特朗普政府提交的請願書徵求公眾意見45天，請願書要求在社交媒體公司如何監管內容方面制定新的透明度規則。
派拒絕了民主黨人的呼籲，即他在沒有公開評論的情況下立即駁回了請願書。這一決定是在唐納德·特朗普總統指示商務部國家電信和信息管理局(NTIA)提交請願書後做出的，此前Twitter Inc.在5月份警告讀者對他的帖子進行事實核查，這些帖子涉及未經證實的郵寄投票舞弊指控。
派此前曾表示，他不認為聯邦通信委員會有責任監管推特、Facebook或Alphabet公司的谷歌等網站，但週一表示，聯邦通信委員會“應該歡迎激烈的辯論，而不是取消它的抵押品贖回權。美國人民應該有發言權，我們會給他們這個機會。”
FCC委員、民主黨人傑弗裏·斯塔克斯在Twitter上寫道，應該採取行動的是國會，而不是FCC。斯塔克斯寫道：“也許當有評論時，我們可以將整個議事日程打包並提交給國會--這場辯論屬於國會。”
NTIA 7月27日的請願書要求FCC限制第230條對社交媒體公司的保護，第230條是1996年《通信體面法》的一項條款，保護社交媒體公司不必為其用户發佈的內容承擔責任，並允許它們刪除合法但令人反感的帖子。
NTIA希望FCC要求社交媒體公司“公開披露有關其內容管理機制的準確信息”，以“使用户能夠對競爭對手的替代方案做出更明智的選擇”。
特朗普是一名共和黨人，將在11月3日競選連任，他一再表達了對社交媒體公司的憤怒。
FCC可能需要一年或更長時間才能敲定任何規則。
(David Shepardson報道；Jonathan Oatis編輯)
(David.Shepardson@thomsonreurs.com；2028988324；)
譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。