The White House is asking people to share their stories about experiencing censorship, suspensions or other bias by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
“SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH,” the White House’s new online tool states. “Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ’violations’ of user policies.”
It encourages users, “No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump.”
The form asks for people to provide their name, contact information and details about the content that was censored. It also seeks screenshots of messages from social media companies about decisions directed against users.
Mr. Trump has often criticized social media platforms for censoring or blocking conservatives.
Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, slammed the White House’s move against what he called “unfounded claims of anti-conservative bias.”
“Platforms have a lot to answer for, but taking down white supremacist content and this bad-faith charge of bias isn’t one of them,” Mr. Wyden said. “The White House move is a major escalation of the right-wing effort to pressure tech companies to leave vile content online, instead of doing the right thing and policing their platforms.”
He said the White House’s effort “flies in the face of the Constitution” and the Communications Decency Act, which he said ensures that private companies “would be able to curate content online, without fear of bogus lawsuits or government interference.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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