"The ‘conservative censorship’ talking point provides an Overton Window counterweight to the idea that social media companies should close off algorithmic pathways to extremist content," notes Ben Collins, who covers the conspiracy underworld of the fringe-right for NBC News. "Fear of angering conservatives creates a political gridlock that benefits Trump in 2020."
To make sure Twitter and Facebook don't clamp down too hard on relentless misinformation, Republicans continue to work the refs hard, which is what Nunes' otherwise ridiculous lawsuit is all about. They complain so loudly and so ferociously about phantom fouls of "liberal bias" that tech companies think twice about even appearing to offend Republicans down the road. Conservatives do that via congressional hearings, presidential tweets, relentless messaging from Fox News, and hardball legal action. They realize that Twitter and Facebook, among others, represent the most important players in news media today and could dominate the landscape for decades to come, and in a way traditional news outlets will not. So they have shifted their focus and started using the same playbook that they used on newspapers, cable news, and network TV for years, which consists of raising holy hell regarding bogus claims of "bias," and striking fear into the executives that run those companies.
To date, tech companies are doing exactly what traditional media companies did when they faced bogus cries of "bias" from the right-wing swamp: They're running around trying to curry favor with conservatives, desperately trying to explain that they're not really anti-GOP.
Last summer, Facebook and Twitter executives scheduled hush-hush meetings and dinners with members of the conservative media elite as part of a feel-good outreach tour. The move came after the companies were relentlessly attacked, based on bogus charges, for supposedly blocking content from conservative voices. (The charges make no sense, since conservative voices are among the loudest and most popular on Twitter and Facebook.)
Part of the Silicon Valley damage control push was the issuing of mea culpas, like the one from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: “It’s no secret that we are largely left leaning, and we all have biases. That includes me, our board, and our company.” (This came after Dorsey consulted with Fox News' Sean Hannity.) Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Capitol Hill and told legislators that that the social media giant is an "extremely left-leaning place” to work.
The distressing Facebook backstory with regard to bogus claims of liberal bias goes like this: In 2016, a dubious press report suggested Facebook editors were "suppressing conservative news," which set off a right-wing mob. In response, Facebook eliminated human editors, or "news curators," from the news selection process in favor of an algorithm. That move promptly unleashed a tidal wave of fake news stories on Facebook, which helped Trump get elected. (One "news" story, announcing that Pope Francis had endorsed Trump, was shared nearly 1 million times on Facebook.) Incredibly, Zuckerberg then hired a retired far-right Republican U.S. senator (!) to investigate whether Facebook is guilty of conservative bias.
All of this is done in a useless effort to placate a right-wing beast that cannot be won over. Twitter, Facebook, and others can't rationally debate "censorship" with conservatives because the "censorship" simply does not exist. The truth is, Republicans don't want a truce with social media companies; they want a war. And right now, they're winning, because Republicans know how to marshal their forces for their dishonest media crusades.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
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