Donald Trump Accuses Social Media Companies Of ‘Shadow Banning’ Conservatives

On Saturday, President Donald Trump accused via Twitter social media companies of “totally discriminating against Republicans/Conservative voices” and said “we won’t let that happen.”

Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

Trump previously made similar claims in July, when he accused Twitter of “‘shadow banning’ prominent Republicans.” In a statement last month Twitter made clear, “We do not shadow ban. You are always able to see the tweets from accounts you follow (although you may have to do more work to find them, like go directly to their profile). And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”

Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 26. Juli 2018

Trump’s tweets came after tech companies like Apple, Spotify, Facebook and YouTube have banned far right conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, and his show Info Wars from their platform for violating standards by posting hate speech that “attacks or dehumanizes” others. Trump appeared on Jones’ program during the 2016 campaign and praised his “amazing” reputation.

In a CNN interview on Saturday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company’s practices, saying, “Are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints? We are not. Period. We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior.” He added, “I think we need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is left, is more left-leaning.”