Amidst calls for Section 230 reform and antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook, a House subcommittee hearing today explored the relationship between Big Tech’s lack of accountability and the radicalization of their respective platforms’ users.
The House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce held a hearing entitled “Mainstreaming Extremism: Social Media’s Role in Radicalizing America” to discuss Big Tech’s role in radicalization. Although the leftist representatives wanted to talk about the extremism on the far-right, Republicans reminded them of the violence on the far-left, and how little Big Tech companies do to stop it.
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) stated that she is “concerned when platforms apply inconsistent content moderating policies for their own purposes … There’s no clearer example of a platform using its power for political purposes than Twitter singling out President Trump while also leaving blatant threats of violence by activists, Democratic candidates and authoritarian foreign leaders untouched.”
She went on to point out multiple instances of Twitter’s blatant hypocrisy with regards to the platform’s online censorship, specifically noting instances in which Twitter allowed blatantly false information or calls for violence from the left with no retaliation.
McMorris Rodgers went on to say that “For political speech we disagree with, the answer should not be censorship. The answer should always be more speech.”
Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, however, focused his time on a very different issue. He described “right-wing extremism” as the “greatest terrorist threat facing our nation today.” He added that “the majority of all terrorist incidents in the U.S. since 1994 were committed by right-wing extremists.”
Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR), however, was not going to let the subcommittee ignore discrimination against the right. He shared his “disappointment” that the memo from the majority for the hearing did not include the “ambush-style killings of law enforcement officers.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 or tweet at the official @FCC Twitter account and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
