Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent much of the week on Capitol Hill, testifying before both the House and the Senate. Though the main controversy surrounding Zuckerberg and Facebook is the Cambridge Analytica “scandal,” many Republicans on the Hill decided to question Zuckerberg on the issue of censorship.
Facebook has begun using “formulas” which they claim help curtail and eliminate content that isn’t from a reliable source, or is what they may consider to be fake news. However, it appears these formulas are instead designed to censor particular political viewpoints. In recent months, traffic to left-leaning, mainstream media content has grown, while more grassroot, right-leaning publications have been stifled..
When testifying in the Senate, Zuckerberg appeared before both of Texas’ senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Senator Cruz’s line of questioning did not go over well for Zuckerberg: the whole exchange can be viewed here.
Zuckerberg has long been complicit in slowing down conservative opponents of a big government agenda. Ted Cruz and elected officials on both sides of the aisle should continue to hold accountable the major social media companies that partake in political censorship.