President Trump invites conservative tech critics to White House for 'social media summit'

Big Tech's political woes may only worsen after July 11, when the White House hosts a “social media summit” that could set the stage for even more scrutiny to come. President Donald Trump's top aides so far have said their scheduled event aims to assemble “digital leaders” to discuss the “opportunities and challenges of today's online environment.” In doing so, though, the White House quietly has invited tech’s top conservative critics in politics and media, some of whom say the solution to Silicon Valley’s perceived political bias is to break up the tech giants or more aggressively regulate them. Among those slated to participate is PragerU, a conservative organization that produces videos about national issues that have millions of views on Facebook and YouTube. Google has limited the reach of some of PragerU’s videos about Islam and guns so that they can't be viewed by those who have enabled restrictive mode, a setting that some parents and school administrators use to control what kids can access on the site. But PragerU has argued Google’s efforts are evidence of Silicon Valley censorship and has sued the tech giant in federal court. The White House has invited representatives from the conservative groups Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Center, spokespeople at each organization said. Charlie Kirk, the executive director of Turning Point USA, said that he plans to attend, adding he expects the conversation to touch on questions of whether a company the size of Google is too powerful and should be investigated as a monopoly.