President Donald Trump’s people want to ensure that social media giants Facebook and Twitter will not manipulate conservative content, hurting their chances for re-election in 2020.
Trump’s 2020campaign manager Brad Parscale and RNC chair Ronna McDaniel sent a letter to Facebook and Twitter on Thursday, asking the two tech companies to work to “prevent political bias” on their platforms.
The letter, which was later made available publicly online, highlights concerns that conservative stories have been censored or suppressed, and conservative journalists blocked on the social media platforms.
We won’t tolerate bias toward conservatives or @realDonaldTrump supporters. We’re standing up for you and demanding answers. @GOPChairwoman and I have sent the following letter to @facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and @Twitter’s @jack Dorsey. #StopTheBiaspic.twitter.com/Poz0Dne9i7
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) May 24, 2018
Parscale and McDaniel point to the suppression of content from conservative bloggers “Diamond and Silk” on Facebook as an example. Facebook never actually blocked their page, but did send an erroneous message—later rectified—suggesting that their content was “unsafe for the community.”
Pointing to the “liberal corporate cultures” in which Facebook and Twitter operate, Parscale and McDaniel note that “rampant political bias” is nevertheless “inappropriate for a widely used public forum.”
“What’s more, the consequences to our democratic society are profound,” the letter continues. “That is why special attention is necessary to address issues such as Facebook’s use of liberal organizations to fact-check content, the access to user profiles it gives to some employees, and Twitter’s manipulation of content that appears for the site’s users.”
The letter also points to Facebook’s efforts to encourage voter registration, asking for “transparency” to “make sure that the new feature does not become essentially an in-kind contribution to liberal candidates.”
The pair concludes the letter by asking for an explanation as to how the social media giants will “ensure all content is managed equally and fairly,” and requests a response by June 18.
In a statement to CNN, Facebook responded that it does not “suppress content on the basis of political viewpoint or prevent people from seeing what matters most to them because doing so would be directly contrary to Facebook’s mission and our business objectives.”
Twitter has not yet responded to a request for comment.