Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has asked the Justice Department to investigate CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly lying to Congress about political biases in the content moderation practices of the social media giant.
The Republican congressman sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday accusing Zuckerberg of making “materially false statements to Congress while under oath” during two hearings in April 2018.
“Both times, members of Congress asked Mr. Zuckerberg about the allegations that Facebook censored and removed content that supports President Donald Trump and other conservatives,” Gaetz wrote.
‘In his responses, Mr. Zuckerberg repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative discourse, people, politics or politics. Mr. Zuckerberg also rejected the suggestion that Facebook exercise any form of editorial manipulation.
Gaetz cited recent research by Project Veritas, a right-wing activist group, that found that the ‘overwhelming majority’ of Facebook’s AI leaked content supported Trump and other Republicans and conservative ideals.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (left) wrote a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday asking the Justice Department to investigate Mark Zuckerberg (right) for allegedly lying to Congress about political bias in Facebook’s content moderation practices.
Project Veritas published hidden camera images last month that appeared to show ‘whistleblowers’ working as Facebook content moderators alleging that they regularly delete posts with a speech in favor of the right.
The validity of the report was questioned given the history of the Veritas Project of driving disinformation and propaganda.
The group, founded by conspiracy theorist James O’Keefe, is known for its covert operations targeting the mainstream media and for its deceptive video-editing practices.
Gaetz argued that the Veritas Project report provided “ample evidence of bias and manipulation” by Facebook.
“According to the Veritas report and the undercover images, the judges were frank about their political bias against the Republicans, and actively decided to remove the allowed content from the platform and from public view simply because of their political orientation,” he wrote.
AG Bill Barr (pictured) has not yet publicly responded to Gaetz’s letter calling for an investigation into Zuckerberg
The congressman charged that Facebook’s “arbitrary and capricious behavior” violates Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives online platforms liability protections as long as they moderate “good faith” content.
He also noted part of the report that claimed that Facebook labeled “a large amount of” political speech that supported the President “as hate speech, and that” the speech that promoted violence against the President and his supporters was labeled simply “political.” , and therefore it was allowed to remain on the platform.
“These facts are in direct contrast to Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress, where he declared under oath that Facebook is a politically neutral platform, and that he personally is working to eliminate all employees who restrict culture-based speech. overwhelmingly leftist from Silicon Valley. ” Gaetz wrote.
He concluded the letter asking the Justice Department to investigate Zuckerberg for lying under oath, arguing that the CEO prevented an investigation by Congress.
“These misrepresentations are not only unfair, they are potentially illegal and fraudulent,” he wrote. “I hope you give this reference full and adequate consideration.”
Barr has yet to publicly respond to Gaetz’s letter.
Gaetz argued that Zuckerberg lied under oath when he testified before Congress in April 2018 and “repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative speech.”
Facebook has been repeatedly accused of prejudice against conservatives by Trump and his allies, who believe the website is actively trying to censor pro-correct content.
Trump issued an executive order in May directing the Justice Department to enforce Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, emphasizing that the “ good faith ” provision should not apply to practices that are “ misleading. ” ‘o are used to suppress certain views.
Meanwhile, critics have also targeted Facebook from the other side, accusing the platform of allowing politicians to run ads that contain misleading, accurate or harmful information.
Gaetz’s letter came less than 48 years before Zuckerberg testified at a Big Tech antitrust hearing before the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, of which Gaetz is a member.
Zuckerberg has postponed the release of Facebook’s quarterly earnings until after the virtual hearing, where he plans to argue that regulation of American tech companies will only help China, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai will also testify at the hearing.
Read Gaetz’s full letter below:
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