White House Drafting Exec Order Dealing With Social Media Anti-Conservative Bias, Report Says
Politico claimed that a White House official stated, “If the internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the president wants some fairness in the system. But look, we also think that social media plays a vital role. They have a vital role and an increasing responsibility to the culture that has helped make them so profitable and so prominent." The official added, “They have a role, if not a responsibility, to monitor the content on their sites to ensure that people aren’t threatened with violence or worse, and at the same time to provide a platform that protects and cherishes freedom and free speech, but at the same time does not allow it to descend into a platform for hate.”
Another White House official reputedly told Politico, "The President announced at this month’s social media summit that we were going to address this and the administration is exploring all policy solutions.”
Politico noted, “One potential approach could involve using the government’s leverage over federal contractors, a tactic the Obama administration used to advance LGBT rights. A 2014 executive order prohibited federal contractors from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
In late July, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department had launched an anti-trust review of technology firms including Facebook, Google, and Apple. The Journal wrote, “The review is geared toward examining the practices of online platforms that dominate internet search, social media and retail services, the department said.” Attorney General William Barr stated, “I don’t think big is necessarily bad, but I think a lot of people wonder how such huge behemoths that now exist in Silicon Valley have taken shape under the nose of the antitrust enforcers. You can win that place in the marketplace without violating the antitrust laws, but I want to find out more about that dynamic.”
In June, President Trump tweeted, “Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction. It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake!”
Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction. It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake!
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In late June, The Daily Wire reported, “Social media platform Twitter announced on Thursday that it will be rolling out a new program to ‘label’ certain politicians' ‘vitriolic’ tweets, allowing those lawmakers to stay on the site, but warning users to remain skeptical of their content.”
Richard Hanania, a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University, noted in February of Twitter, “Of 22 prominent, politically active individuals who are known to have been suspended since 2005 and who expressed a preference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, 21 supported Donald Trump … Twitter debuted in 2006. Yet I could not find a case of the company suspending or banning a prominent person before May 2015.” He concluded, “It is unthinkable that we would allow a telephone or electricity company to prevent those on one side of the political aisle from using its services. Why would we allow social media companies to do the same?”
