Republicans Accuse Twitter of Bias Against Conservatives

House Commerce Committee Republicans accused Twitter of being biased against conservatives. The charge drew rebukes from Democrats during a Congressional hearing that illustrated how partisan lines are increasingly being drawn on social media.  Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, repeatedly denied the accusations as Republicans suggested Twitter’s algorithms suppress conservative viewpoints and discriminate against Republican voices. Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA) called the idea that social media services exhibit a partisan slant a “load of crap.”

“This is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the president’s misguided belief in such bias, which has been disproved time and again by legitimate researchers,” said Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn, a former senior official at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration.

“It’s totally politics,” said Benton Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, a lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center. He said Republican lawmakers accused social media companies of bias but he doubted that Congress would want to create laws to monitor speech on the services. “I don’t hear any discussion that suggests there are genuine legislative solutions to problems they are talking about.”