President Trump slammed Twitter, Facebook and Google yesterday and accused the tech giants of colluding to discriminate against conservatives.
Speaking at a press conference in the Rose Garden, the President said, “We use the word collusion very loosely all the time. And I will tell you there is collusion with respect to that. Something has to be going on. You see the level, in many cases, of hatred for a certain group of people that happened to be in power, that happened to win the election.”
He added, “Something’s happening with those groups of folks that are running Facebook and Google and Twitter and I do think we have to get to the bottom of it.”
When asked specifically about Twitter, the President said the social media platform is “different than it used to be.”
“We have to do something,” he said. “I have many, many millions of followers on Twitter, and it’s different than it used to be. Things are happening. Names are taken off.”
He argued that conservatives and Republicans are discriminated against by the companies.
“It’s big, big discrimination,” he said. “I see it absolutely on Twitter.”
On Monday, Republican congressman Devin Nunes (CA) filed a lawsuit against Twitter for censoring conservatives and ignoring abusive behaviors.
In the complaint, Nunes claims Twitter wanted to thwart his investigation into DOJ and FBI surveillance abuses and accuses the company of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory – providing both a voice and financial incentive to the defamers – thereby facilitating defamation on its platform.”
The lawsuit alleged defamation, conspiracy, and negligence, as well as violations of the state’s prohibition against “insulting words” — effectively fighting words that tend towards “violence and breach of the peace.” The complaint sought not only damages, but also an injunction compelling Twitter to turn over the identities behind numerous accounts he said harassed and defamed him.
Nunes’ legal team wrote, “Twitter created and developed the content at issue in this case by transforming false accusations of criminal conduct, imputed wrongdoing, dishonesty and lack of integrity into a publicly available commodity used by unscrupulous political operatives and their donor/clients as a weapon. Twitter is ‘responsible’ for the development of offensive content on its platform because it in some way specifically encourages the development of what is offensive about the content.”
