Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, asked Attorney General William Barr on Monday to open a criminal investigation into Mark Zuckerberg on allegations that the Facebook CEO lied to Congress.
In a letter to Barr, Gaetz accused the social media executive of making false statements to Congress twice in 2018. He alleged that Zuckerberg “repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative speech, people, politics or politics” in your platform.
“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.
“Mr. Zuckerberg also rejected the suggestion that Facebook exercise any form of editorial manipulation,” he added.
Zuckerberg made the comments in 2018 under questions from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who accused Facebook of “bias and censorship.” Cruz cited a Gizmodo 2016 that reveals allegations that the social media platform had knowingly suppressed conservative news. Zuckerberg replied:
I understand where that concern comes from, because Facebook and the tech industry are in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left-leaning place. And this is really a concern that I have, and that I try to take root in the company, is making sure that we don’t have any bias in the work that we do. And I think it’s a fair concern that people at least wonder.
As evidence to back up his claims, Gaetz directed Barr to a recent foray into the Veritas Project, a right-wing organization known for its efforts to wipe out liberal organizations, mainstream media, and public figures through misinformation and deceptive editing of “internal” videos.
Project Veritas published hidden images of alleged Facebook content moderators who apparently admit to deleting conservative posts. Gaetz says the “whistleblowers” in the video offer “ample evidence” of the company’s “bias and manipulation.”
“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 content that would otherwise be allowed from the platform and from public view simply because of their political orientation.” Gaetz wrote.
“At the same time,” added Gaetz, “the speech that promotes violence against the president and his supporters was labeled as merely ‘political’ and was therefore allowed to remain on the platform.”
The Republican representative also claims, without citing evidence, that Facebook’s artificial intelligence content detection program is not politically neutral, which he alleges is a violation of the “good faith” provision of the Communications Decency Act.
Republicans, from internet trolls to lawmakers and President Donald Trump himself, regularly accuse Facebook and other social media platforms of anti-conservative bias.
However, Facebook launched its own project in the weeks after the 2016 election, “Project P,” for propaganda, which found dozens of pages selling fake news before Trump’s victory. Almost all of the pages were located abroad, had financial reasons, and “were clearly leaning to the right,” according to the Washington Post.
Another reason why moderators may find a higher volume of conservative content tagged is because Facebook’s most popular content has become overwhelmingly conservative over time. “Facebook has become the home of the right in the United States, while Twitter and Snap have become the home of the left,” reported Nick Bilton of the Vanity Fair earlier this year.
And while liberals have criticized Facebook for refusing to verify political ads, and even threatened to break the social media platform, several leading conservatives have secretly met with Zuckerberg, including Tucker Carlson, Senator Lindsey Graham, and others. . at least once, Trump himself. Zuckerberg has not disclosed the content of those meetings.
Matt Gaetz did not respond to Salon’s request for comment. Facebook declined to comment.
