|
Representatives Jim Jordan and James Sensenbrenner, in a letter
to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, said Twitter's content moderation
was not neutral and that it more often took aim at
conservatives.
"Twitter’s discrimination against conservative voices is
extremely alarming. These actions give rise to concerns that the
company is systematically engaged in the disparate treatment of
political speech and is deceiving users of the platform by not
uniformly applying its terms of service," they wrote.
The two men complained in particular about Twitter's decision in
late May to "fact check" Trump's assertion linking mailed
ballots with voter fraud. Twitter at the time said in a
statement that it had added a label to two Trump tweets because
they "could confuse voters."
They also objected to Twitter's treatment of a Trump tweet
saying he would use "serious force" to keep protesters from
creating an autonomous zone in Washington, D.C. Twitter said the
tweet violated a policy against abusive behavior but did not
take it down.
The lawmakers also accused a Twitter official, whom they did not
name, of using insulting language to talk about the president
and a White House official.
A Twitter spokesman confirmed the company received the letter,
but declined to comment further.
The two representatives asked Twitter to provide an accounting
of content moderation decisions affecting Americans in the past
year, as well as documents and communications regarding
Twitter's treatment of the Trump tweets.
Jordan is the top Republican on the Democrat-controlled House
Judiciary committee and Sensenbrenner is the top Republican on
its antitrust subcommittee.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by Katie Paul;
Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
