President Trump early Tuesday went after tech giants Twitter, Facebook and Google, claiming they are “biased” against Republicans and have removed several conservative accounts from their platforms.
“Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous! Twitter, in fact, has made it much more difficult for people to join @realDonaldTrump. They have removed many names & greatly slowed the level and speed of increase. They have acknowledged-done NOTHING!” he said in a tweet.
{mosads}Trump and conservative activists have long claimed that in social media companies’ efforts to purge their platforms of fraudulent accounts, including foreign bots, they have also sought to silence conservative voices in a practice they call “shadow banning.”
“Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints,” Trump tweeted in July.
“Our focus is on the health of the service, and that includes work to remove fake accounts to prevent malicious behavior,” a spokesperson for Twitter said in a statement to The Hill in October. “Many prominent accounts have seen follower counts drop, but the result is higher confidence that the followers they have are real, engaged people.”
Several tech companies have come under fire from the left for insufficiently battling fake news’ spread on their platforms, including during the 2016 election when Moscow directed a disinformation campaign largely over social media. Facebook, Twitter and Google have all vowed to clamp down on the spread of fake news.