Read the freaking EO (the text is part of my post).
Much more than the federal government not sending them any ad business.
I read the entire EO. Section 230 gives these social media platforms exemption from liability for anything posted on their platforms, because they are neutral, and a valuable public service is performed by them facilitating free and open discourse. The EO provides that if they start mixing into the discourse, censoring opinions they don’t like, posting fact-check notices selectively, etc., they lose the exemption conferred upon them by Section 230.
The courts may restrict this EO, and rule that they only lose this exemption with regards to the opinions that they post, or the posters that they censor.
But nothing that I read in the EO further punishes the platform owners for interfering, other than getting no more federal ad money, and having the government snooping around to see if they’re doing something to censor viewpoints via algorithms. It’s all about fairness in managing a public forum, and exemption from liability so long as they are fair.