Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Sponsored by Bridge Bank. Be safe. Venture wisely. I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, the business of tear gas and a possible COVID-19 treatment.

But first, the social media maelstrom.

So yesterday, hundreds of Facebook employees reportedly walked off the job, or technically

logged off the job since they're working from home, due to the company's decision to not follow

Twitter's lead in taking down posts from President Trump that they view as calls for violence.

Several of the employees also publicly explain their decision.

And if you know Facebook culture, this is a pretty big piercing of the big blue app.

All of this, though, comes amidst broader conversations, from the White House to Silicon Valley,

about the role of social media platforms in policing user content, and at least one literal

conversation. With Axios reporting

that Trump and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke via phone on Friday night in a call that both

sides referred to as productive. As of Sunday afternoon, though, there was no similar call

plan between Trump and Twitter's Jack Dorsey. What comes next would likely be up to Congress,

where there's an emerging bipartisan interest in revisiting

a 1996 law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which effectively shields

internet companies from liability for what their users post.

Last week, we discussed how Trump issued an executive order related to the rule after Twitter

opted to amend a fact check to one of his tweets. Today, we want to dig a bit deeper into how the rule could be changed, including the notion

of using a revised version that arguably would focus more on tech company behavior than on user

behavior.

In 20 seconds, we will go deeper on that with attorney Stewart Baker.

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