Trump says social media biased
Conservatives get unfair treatment, president contends
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump directed his ire Tuesday at the nation’s major social media companies, saying they’re biased against Republicans.
Trump’s focus on social media began with a morning tweet and continued into a press conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
“It seems to be if they’re conservative, if they’re Republicans, if they’re in a certain group, there is discrimination and big discrimination,” Trump said of the tech giants. “I see it absolutely on Twitter and Facebook.”
While some tech company executives may lean liberal, they have long asserted that their products are without political bias. Twitter disputed the president’s contention Tuesday, with a company spokeswoman saying “we enforce the Twitter rules impartially for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation.”
Trump’s comments came in response to a question about whether he could go along with legislation to make social media companies liable for their content on their platforms. Trump and some supporters have long accused Silicon Valley companies of being biased against them.
“Well, we have to do something. I tell you I have many, many millions of followers on Twitter, and it’s different than it used to be,” Trump said. “Things are happening. Names are taken off. People aren’t getting through.”
Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino posted on his Facebook page this week that he had been temporarily blocked from making comments. Trump tweeted that he would be looking into it.
Facebook released a statement saying it has been in touch with Scavino. It explained that limits it has put in place to stop automated bots can have unintended consequences on real people like Scavino, but generally lift in an hour or two.
“We’ve been in touch with him and have apologized for the inconvenience,” Facebook said.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-calif., is suing Twitter and several of its users for more than $250 million, accusing them of defamation and negligence. The suit filed Monday in Virginia accuses Twitter of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory.”
Nunes’ suit also accuses Twitter of censoring “viewpoints with which it disagrees” and “shadow-banning conservatives.”
Shadow banning allows users to post freely — but no one else sees their messages. Twitter has denied doing it, although some political conservatives remain unconvinced.