President Trump has threatened the social media company with regulatory action and even a shutdown after Twitter flagged two of the president's tweets with fact-check warnings for the first time this week.

The fact-check labels, seen below, were accompanied by links directing users to "get the facts," discrediting President Trump's message about mail-in ballot fraud. In response, the President issued something of a warning to social media companies, stating that "there will be major action."

"Strongly regulate or shut down," the President tweeted, referring to platforms he felt were "completely stifling" free speech.

We will know better tomorrow (May 28) what that means. That's because, according to a White House spokesman, the president is scheduled to issue an executive order "on social media." Details of what that actually means are not yet known.

In recent months, Twitter has been strengthening its fact-checking policies to combat the distribution of false and potentially dangerous information as the global pandemic continues. Until this week, however, it had not yet used the fact-checking flag, which adds an exclamation point and a link to fact-checked information, on the president's account.

The relationship between President Trump and Twitter is somewhat esoteric. The president uses Twitter to deliver a series of short messages, but he must adapt Twitter to use it as a political platform; in June 2019, he introduced a flag for offensive tweets from politicians, and the same summer Trump blocked accounts critical involved in a judicial ruling on the matter.

Given this precedent (and a basic understanding of communications law), social media platforms are generally protected from regulation by free speech.

Each social media company has its own community guidelines that users subscribe to when they create an account, and some companies have increased responsibility to monitor the spread of disinformation and "fake news," but all are open to sharing ideas and considered a platform.

Therefore, if the President were to take action to impose mandatory regulations or "shut down" some of these sites, he would likely consider a First Amendment case.

A Twitter spokesperson told CBS News that "while the risk of harm associated with tweets is not as severe, we still use these labels and warnings to provide additional explanation or clarification in situations where people may be confused or misled by the content or messages."