Facebook, Google and Twitter under fire from Senate Republicans for censoring conservatives online
Sen. Ted Cruz, shown here at a hearing in December, on Wednesday accused social media companies of censoring opinions they disagreed with. By Tony Romm Tony Romm Staff writer covering technology policy Email Bio Follow April 10 at 6:10 PM Republicans led by Sen.
But Democrats sharply rebuked Cruz and his GOP allies for convening the hearing in the first place. “For decades, Republicans have bashed the supposedly liberal mainstream media in an effort to work the refs,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono . “Now that two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media, Republicans have a new boogeyman to target — big tech.”
Conservatives long have claimed that major social-media sites exhibit political bias, pointing to Silicon Valley’s liberal leanings and regular contributions to Democrats. Beyond that, however, experts have said there is no evidence that Facebook, Google and Twitter have deliberately sought to limit the reach of Republicans, a message that tech giants in attendance on Wednesday emphasized.
As an example, Trump has pointed to his follower count on Twitter, which he said tends to fluctuate — a fact Twitter long has attributed to its efforts to shut down spam accounts on the platform. Still, Trump last month reiterated his threat for further scrutiny, telling reporters the government has to “do something about it.”
Cruz and his peers pointed to instances in which Facebook and Twitter erroneously applied its policies to conservative content, resulting in pro-life ads or tweets being removed from those social-media sites. One of the tweets Cruz displayed and claimed had been “blocked” — from the president of Susan B. Anthony List — claimed that abortion is “profoundly anti-women,” accompanied by a quotation from Mother Theresa.
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