Remarks by President Trump at the Presidential Social Media Summit | Eastern North Carolina Now

    THE PRESIDENT: And we go out -

    He says, "Liar." Who said that? (Laughter.) Must come from Queens. (Laughter.)

    So - so it's very interesting to see that. And - and the level of - you know, you look at them - the sincerity. And I say, "That's fantastic." And they'll leave. And then, I'll realize, three or four weeks later, it's worse. It actually got worse.

    Because I say - look, I believe in technology. I believe in free markets. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in all of the things, and they are super genius.

    I'll tell you, I'm dealing with China. And they admitted there's nobody like Silicon Valley. There's nobody smart, in that sense - maybe not smart in other senses. I've watched some of them speak before Congress; it's not pretty. (Laughter.) I say, "I could do much better than that." (Laughter.)

    But I tell you what: Technologically, it's unbelievable what they think of. Even Dan and I, when we sat with you-know-who at Twitter - number one. We talked about certain things. He says, "You know, we could do this, this, this." I said, "That's really great." You know, this is incredible stuff.

    China will admit there's nobody like these brains. But they're not using that brilliance and they're not using what we gave them fairly. And they have to do that.

    And we don't want to stifle anything. We certainly don't want to stifle free speech, but that's no longer free speech. See, I don't think that the mainstream media is free speech either because it's so crooked. It's so dishonest.

    So, to me, free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposely write bad. To me, that's very dangerous speech and you become angry at it. But that's not free speech. Somebody came to my office - and I won't say who, but a very big person. And I said, "Okay, you don't like the term 'fake news'" - which I think I get credit for, but I'm sure that, if I said I get credit, they'll say, "Thirteen years ago, somebody came up with the terms 'fake.'" (Laughter.) I think I'd get credit. I'd be very proud to take it. But I think I'd get credit.

    Now, by the way, the worst fakers of all are using "fake news." I saw the other day on CNN - total fakes - I see on CNN - they go, "Fake-news media has reported..." No, no - they're fake-news media. (Laughter.) They've turned it around. (Applause.) They've turned it around.

    So I'm not going to allow - and Josh and all of us, we're not just going to allow it to happen like this. We're not going to be silenced.


    Two months ago, we created a new White House tool to report social media bias, censorship, and discrimination. We saw you folks being taken off, and we fought on all of you. And many of you are back now. But many of the names - I won't mention your names - but some of you were taken off for absolutely no reason.

    I mean, in all fairness, some of you I could almost understand. (Laughter.) I mean, some of you guys are out there. (Laughter.) But even you should have a voice. (Laughter.) But some of you - no, some of you deserve - (applause) - some of you. I mean, it's genius, but it's bad. (Laughter.)

    But they take off people that are - you know, that you wouldn't believe. And we received over 16,000 responses just in a tiny little period of time talking about this subject.

    Based on the feedback that we're hearing from you, I'm announcing that we will ask representatives of the major social media platforms to join me at the White House over the next month, have a big meeting and a real conversation. We want - might want to invite some of you. I know, Josh, we're going to have you and some of the senators.

    And it's amazing how the senators - including Democrats, in all fairness - which is probably because they know it can turn on them also. It can turn very quickly. But they want to come. So we'll let you know the date, okay?

    And today, I'm directing my administration to explore all regulatory and legislative solutions to protect free speech and the free-speech rights of all Americans. That's you people in this room and a lot of people out there. There are a lot of people.

    We hope to see transparency, more accountability, and more freedom. That's on both sides. This is not - I am not speaking for our side, assuming we're all - I don't even know if you're on our side. You could be some of the most liberal people in the world in this audience, and that's okay. I don't care. But we're talking about for everybody. Big tech must not censor the voices of the American people.

    To all of the social media influencers here today - a lot of - you have a lot of power and you have a lot of strength. And, you know, you have to use it wisely. Many of you do, but you have to.

    I want to thank you once again for being here. You're very special people. You're very brilliant people, in so many cases. I look around the room - I mean, I see people that really have almost found a new life over the last short period of time with this new technology. But this new technology is so powerful and so important, and it has to be used fairly. It has to be used fairly.

    So thank you all for being here. It's a great honor. Tremendous honor.

    We're going to take a few questions, I think. And then I'll head out. And you're going to actually come - if you want, you can come to the great Rose Garden. You can stand in the rain with me. We're going to talk a little bit about the fact that we're not allowed to ask for whether or not somebody is a citizen on the census form. And I think we have a solution that will be very good for a lot of people - really good.

END  •  4:42 P.M. EDT


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