Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell and conservative leaders on Tuesday, Feb. 23, launched a petition drive urging state attorneys general to investigate whether or not Big Tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube are violating the state's consumer protection statute.
In a statement, Bozell pointed out that the CEOs of Google, Facebook and Twitter "have repeatedly alleged their platforms are neutral forums for political speech and that they support an equal exchange of ideas."
"The actions by these tech companies, however, prove those claims are patently false. Conservative speech is under attack. Countless conservatives, former President Trump included, have been censored or outright banned on these platforms for simply expressing their beliefs," Bozell said in the statement.
"We cannot allow Facebook, Google and Twitter to continue to deceive the public with lies about the political neutrality of their products. We're urging Americans who believe in preserving free speech to contact their state attorney general and request they investigate these companies for their deceptive trade practices." (Related: Texas congressman wants social media firms held accountable for biased censorship of speech.)
Expectation vs reality
The letter highlighted the contradiction between the words and actions of Big Tech leaders.
It cited Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey telling a congressional committee that his platform's purpose "is to serve the public conversation," offering a "free exchange of ideas" in which "all voices can be heard."
It also mentioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's CNBC interview last year where he said that he "didn't think Facebook or internet platforms in general should be arbiters of truth."
"Political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy, and people should be able to see what politicians say," Zuckerberg said.
The letter also noted that CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google and YouTube are both neutral platforms.
"We are equally committed to protecting the quality and integrity of information on our platforms, and supporting our democracy in a non-partisan way… Let me be clear: We approach our work without political bias, full stop. To do otherwise would be contrary to both our business interests and our mission, which compels us to make information accessible to every type of person, no matter where they live or what they believe," Pichai said.
Bozell and the conservative leaders pointed out that the Big Tech leaders were not putting those claims into practice.
Twitter had censored former President Donald Trump's campaign and personal accounts 625 times while leaving President Joe Biden's personal and campaign accounts alone. Trump's account was ultimately banned from the platform.
Google and YouTube had targeted conservative platforms such as The Federalist and PragerU.
Facebook had removed more than 265,000 pieces of content and displayed warnings on 180 million pieces of content related to the presidential election from March 1, 2020 through Election Day. Facebook and Twitter had also censored the New York Post bombshell exposé on Hunter Biden's influence peddling and any mention of "Stop the Steal." (Related: Facebook, Twitter gave Biden cash while protecting Hunter.)
The letter also mentioned that during a Senate hearing in October 2020, both Twitter and Facebook claimed they censored liberal accounts as much as they censored conservatives. But when asked to provide an example of liberal accounts they have censored, neither Facebook’s Zuckerberg nor Twitter’s Dorsey could come up with a single example.
In the letter, the signatories accused Facebook, Google and Twitter of "willfully and knowingly misrepresenting the nature of the services they are offering to the public."
"They claim they are platforms free from political bias, but that is unequivocally not the case," they said in the letter.
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