President Trump is to sign an executive order on social media companies following Twitter taking a stand against a tweet he posted.
The U.S. president accused the social media firms of trying to stifle right-wing opinions after Twitter tagged one of his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of postal vote fraud with a fact checker warning.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter chief executive, said Mr Trump’s tweets about California’s postal voting plans “may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot”.
The president said: “Republicans feel that social media platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
Mr Trump, a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, added: “Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
It comes as a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. on the 27th upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by a conservative group and right-wing YouTube personality against Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple.
The courts decided they do not have any viable claims that the companies violated their First Amendment free speech rights.
The White House gave no further details on what the order, which will be signed on Thursday, would involve.
It was unclear how Mr Trump could follow through on the threat of shutting down privately-owned companies, including Twitter.
