The political highlight Tuesday was the joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees where Senators grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about his company’s conduct for hours. Of course, a focus for three major liberal news networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) was the probing questions regarding the information allegedly used in the 2016 election. But they, along with their Spanish-language counterparts Univision and Telemundo, ignored questions by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) regarding liberal bias and censorship of conservatives.
For those liberal networks, there appeared to be an effort to generate yet another excuse to explain why Democrats lost to Donald Trump.
ABC congressional correspondent Mary Bruce showcased a question by Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar about Facebook ads targeting swing states. “Were these people, the 87 million people, users, concentrated in certain states, are you able to figure out where they're from,” the Senator asked Zuckerberg. “Because as we know, the election was close and it was only thousands of votes in certain states.”
But for Cruz, it was crucial to get Zuckerberg on the record and answer questions about the social media company’s alleged bias against conservatives. “Well Mr. Zuckerberg, I will say there are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” Cruz declared.
Cruz then read off a laundry list of apparent anti-conservative transgressions by Zuckerberg’s company:
There have been numerous instances with Facebook in May of 2016, Gizmodo reported Facebook routinely suppressed conservative stories if tending news. Including stores about CPAC, including stories about Mitt Romney, including stores about the Lois Lerner IRS scandal, including stores about Glenn Beck. In addition to that Facebook has initially shut down the Chick-fil-A appreciation day page, has blocked posts of a Fox News reporter, has blocked over two dozen Catholic pages…
The Texas Senator went on to press Zuckerberg on whether liberal organizations have received the same treatment. “Are you aware of any ad or page that's been taken down from Planned Parenthood? (…) How about MoveOn.org? (…) How about any Democratic candidate from office?” Zuckerberg had no information on them.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse also came with pressing questions about for Facebook as he asked about defining hate speech. Obviously concerned, the Senator noted:
We see this happening on college campuses all across the county. It's dangerous. 40 percent of Americans under age 35 tell pollsters they think the First Amendment is dangerous because you might use your freedom to say something that hurts somebody else’s feelings.
Zuckerberg didn’t have a specific definition. “Senator, I think that this is a really hard question and I think it’s one of the reasons we struggle with it,” he responded.
These questions are important to conservatives because with the rise of the so-called social justice warriors came the condemnation of the marketplace of ideas. And with no protections against abuses, conservative views could be forced from social media for simply disagreeing. But, of course, that means little to the liberal networks who target Republicans for smears all the same.
Transcript below, click "expand" to read:
C-SPAN
Facebook Hearing
April 10, 2018
4:17:21 PM Eastern(…)
TED CRUZ: Well Mr. Zuckerberg, I will say there are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship. There have been numerous instances with Facebook in May of 2016, Gizmodo reported Facebook routinely suppressed conservative stories if tending news. Including stores about CPAC, including stories about Mitt Romney, including stores about the Lois Lerner IRS scandal, including stores about Glenn Beck.
In addition to that Facebook has initially shut down the Chick-fil-A appreciation day page, has blocked posts of a Fox News reporter, has blocked over two dozen Catholic pages, and most recently blocked Trump supporters Diamond and Silk's page with 1.2 million Facebook followers after determining their content and brand were, quote, “unsafe to the community.”
To a great many Americans that appears to be a pervasive pattern of political bias. Do you agree with that assessment?
ZUCKERBERG: Senator let me say a few things about this. First, I understand where that concern is coming from because Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley which is an extremely left-leaning place. This is actually a concern that I have in that I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don’t have any bias in the work that we do and I think it is a fair concern that people would wonder about.
CRUZ: Are you aware of any ad or page that's been taken down from Planned Parenthood?
ZUCKERBERG: Senator I'm not but let me just –
CRUZ: How about MoveOn.org?
ZUCKERBERG: Sorry?
CRUZ: About MoveOn.org
ZUCKERBERG: I’m not specifically aware—
CRUZ: How about any Democratic candidate from office?
ZUCKERBERG: I’m not specifically aware—
(…)
