Donald Trump Accuses Social Media Companies Of Silencing Conservative Speech

President Donald Trump, who once threatened to stop holding White House press briefings due to the unflattering coverage, said in a tweet early Friday that “people need to find out what is real, and what is not, without censorship.”

As many incendiary conservative figures see their follower counts drop and their tweets receiving lower traffic than before, rumors that social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook have enacted a “shadow ban” limiting the viewership conservative accounts receive. The companies have  denied the claim.

President Trump accused “social media giants of silencing millions of people.” He tweeted, “Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely.”

Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

In recent weeks, Twitter has increasingly found itself in the crosshairs of GOP lawmakers and the president over so-called “shadow banning.” Last week, President Trump accused the media companies of “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” pledging that his administration “won’t let that happen.”

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Earlier this month, social media companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Spotify removed the content of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whose site peddled racist and antisemetic conspiracy theories in an attempt to lure followers.