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In July 2016, several political fringe web sites published articles reporting that President Obama had signed an executive order allowing the military to fight U.S. citizens. These articles typically included a brief paragraph introducing this claim, followed by the full text (more than 1300 words) of the executive order: The web sites promoting this rumor did not, however, point to any specific language in this executive order that signified President Obama's intent to use military force on American citizens. Instead, these web sites simply made bold and baseless claims at the top of their articles and then sent readers on a wild goose chase for evidence. On 1 July 2016, President Obama signed an executive order (EO) entitled United States Policy on Pre- and Post-Strike Measures to Address Civilian Casualties in U.S. Operations Involving the Use of Force. That EO addressed the increased use of drone strikes (both within and outside areas of active hostilities) by the U.S., aiming to protect civilians during armed conflicts and provide more transparency in the case of civilian casualties: The Washington Post summarized the three main points of that executive order as follows: The White House also released a Fact Sheet explaining the intent of executive order: Nothing in this executive order calls for or authorizes the United States military to use force against American civilians, nor does the order change the rules of engagement between the military vs ordinary US citizens. Rather, this executive order aims to curb civilian causalities during the use of force in areas of conflict outside the U.S. Although the claims made by fringe political sites on this subject may be overblown, the executive order in question has been criticized by legal scholars who argue that the United States drone policy could violate international law because the United States' war on terrorist groups doesn't have specific geographic bounds:
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