Trump Vetoes Defense-Spending Bill: ‘A Gift to China and Russia’

President Donald Trump has vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) because it fails to remove Section 230—the liability shield that protects social media companies, among other reasons.

“Unfortunately, the Act fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military’s history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions,” he said in a Dec. 23 statement. “It is a ‘gift’ to China and Russia.”

The NDAA, the president said, fails to make changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, even though both Republicans and Democrats have called for it to be repealed. Conservatives have said it enables social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to engage in censorship of dissenting views, and some progressives have said the law fails to take “hate speech” posted on those platforms into account.