President Trump looks to rally controversial online allies at White House social media summit

President Donald Trump has summoned Republican lawmakers, political strategists and social media stars to the White House on July 11  to discuss the “opportunities and challenges” of the Web — but his upcoming summit, critics say, could end up empowering online provocateurs who have adopted controversial political tactics entering the 2020 election campaign. The high-profile gathering follows months of attacks from President Trump claiming that Facebook, Google and Twitter — all services the president taps to talk to supporters — secretly censor right-leaning users, websites and other content online, a charge of political bias that each of the tech giants strongly deny. But President Trump hasn’t invited any of the major tech companies, apparently, opting instead to grant a powerful stage to people who have a track record of sending inflammatory tweets and videos and posting other troubling content that social media sites increasingly are under pressure to remove.