Prominent Republicans reacted with outrage to the news that Facebook introduced tools that suppressed the reach of Breitbart News and other conservative publishers on the platform, following the publication of Breitbart’s story earlier today.
Donald Trump Jr. said Facebook was caught “red-handed” suppressing traffic to Breitbart News and other conservative publishers.
Sean Parnell, who is running in the Republican primary to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, called for an investigation into Big Tech companies to address “rampant” censorship of conservatives.
“Facebook controls what you see, which is another way of controlling how you think,” said J.D. Vance, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. “Congress should investigate.”
As Breitbart News reported yesterday, Facebook sources have told the Wall Street Journal how the social network created tools after the 2016 election that reduced the traffic to conservative publishers.
According to Facebook’s own researchers, if the tools were removed, it would increase traffic to Breitbart News by 20 percent, the Washington Times by 18 percent, Western Journal by 16 percent, and the Epoch Times by 11 percent.
One of the tools was eventually removed — but it is unclear from the Journal’s story if it was the one responsible for the bulk of the traffic suppression.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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