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French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, were joined by leaders from the U.K., Canada, Jordan, Indonesia and others on Wednesday to sign the agreement.

The Trump administration balked at the agreement, citing freedom of speech protections, but it said it agreed in principle.

“The United States is not currently in a position to join the endorsement,\" a White House spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. \"The best tool to defeat terrorist speech is productive speech.\"

Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, a trade organization that represents most of the biggest technology companies, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, said it wouldn’t be good business for online platforms to censor users based on political ideologies.

\"IA member company platforms don’t have a political ideology or political bias, and it would make no business sense for companies to stifle the speech of half -- or any significant portion -- their customers,\" Beckerman said in a statement. \"The success and growth of internet companies depends upon a broad user base regardless of party affiliation or political perspectives.\"

President Barack Obama's administration ignited controversy nearly a decade ago when it when it encouraged people to flag misleading messages about the president's health care reform plan.

Macon Phillips, Obama’s former director of digital strategy, said it's ironic to see Trump deploy the same tactics that Republicans criticized during the previous administration.

\"It's just a cynical way of using the same tools we try to use, but just like I don't know much about all,\" Phillips told ABC News. \"Their digital strategy is about distraction from the issues that people care about.\"

\"PHOTO:
AP Photo
PHOTO: The Twitter app on a cellphone.
>

Phillips, who currently serves as chief digital officer at anti-poverty nonprofit CARE USA, said the Trump administration doesn't seem to have much of a digital strategy beyond the president's Twitter account. He said the new forum could be used as a tool to sow more distrust and confusion online.

\"A good digital program involves empathy and curiosity and interest in your audience, and I don't think the Trump administration is doing anything from that standpoint,\" he said.

\"If Trump had something to say, you know, about constructive positive things, he would,\" Phillips added. \"Instead, he focuses on a digital push right now to sow more doubt and division and distract from some really really difficult truths that he needs to grapple with.\"

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