Friday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker argued for a Department of Justice investigation into how Facebook and Twitter were altering their algorithms for the sake of politics.
Whitaker told host Tucker Carlson he did not see American democracy surviving another election cycle under the circumstances by which those social media outlets function.
“Yes, I actually do believe we are going to get to the bottom of this insidious, really, censorship of mostly conservative voices on social media,” he said. “And I think the Department of Justice has been looking at this issue, and I also believe that because of the way the algorithms that Facebook and Twitter and the like use to provide your news feed, I think that could be viewed, and maybe viewed by this Department of Justice, as a campaign contribution, an illegal campaign contribution, that ultimately, I think, they will step in and take action.”
“[I] think what is also happening among these companies, Facebook in particular — they have so much data on their individual users that they can essentially manipulate what you see, how you see it, and therefore, based on the feedback loop that is provided, they can then try to influence you to, whether it is to use a product, vote for a candidate,” Whitaker added. “It’s really, again, insidious. I think the Department of Justice has to act because our democracy can probably not stand this for another election cycle.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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