Donald Trump Jr. on Friday said that the “inmates are actually running the asylum” at Facebook as he said he’s still skeptical about the political neutrality of the social media giant.
At a panel on “big tech” at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been more open to “free speech” than others.
Mr. Trump, President Trump’s eldest son, did say it’s good to give credit where credit is due.
“The problem with the Zuckerberg argument is they have … 100,000 employees that don’t agree,” he said. “The problem is this — it’s not just the leader at the top. The inmates are actually running the asylum.”
“One little character in there, one little subtle manipulation can mean so much that there has to be actual guidance from the top to make sure that isn’t happening,” Mr. Trump said.
Sen. Josh Hawley said he met with Mr. Zuckerberg and that they spoke about a case where the pro-life group Live Action had been blocked from distributing videos.
“He admitted to me — he said, you know what, Josh? There was bias in that case,” said Mr. Hawley, Missouri Republican.
“And then he also said to me, he goes I know this might be hard to believe, but we do have a bias problem at Facebook,” he said.
Conservatives have criticized tech giants like Facebook and Twitter, saying they have employed subtle biases against them in recent years.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue that Facebook’s policy about political ads has allowed the president and Republicans to use the platform to engage in disinformation.
Mr. McCarthy said liberals are going after Mr. Zuckerberg because the president has been “able to use Facebook better than the Democrats.”
The California Republican cautioned attendees to be wary of “free” tech services.
“Do you think Siri only listens to you when you ask her?” Mr. McCarthy said. “Anything on the internet that is free — you are not the customer. You are the client … they’re utilizing your data and selling it.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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