US Justice Department to Probe Facebook, Twitter for Curbing Free Speech
Sep. 6, 2018After Wednesday’s congressional hearings, Facebook and Twitter will now face questions from the Justice Department (DOJ) over allegations of political bias, an issue flagged by US President Donald Trump. In a meeting in September, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, along with state attorneys general, would look into whether Facebook and Twitter are“intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms”, CNET reported on Wednesday.
The DOJ announced the meeting on a day when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appeared before the US Congress, admitting to the lawmakers that they were“too slow to act”and“ill-prepared”to tackle foreign interference on their platforms.
According toTheWashingtonPost, Sandberg told the US Senate Intelligence Committee that they were too slow to spot this and too slow to act.“That’s on us.”The social networking platforms attracted criticism for being vulnerable to Russia-linked influence campaigns. Trump has accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of trying to “silence” conservative voices.
