Last Updated Apr 26, 2018 11:35 AM EDT
Vocal Trump supporters and social media personalities Diamond and Silk — whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson — are testifying, under oath, before lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee Thursday on the filtering practices of social media platforms.
“Facebook censored our free speech!” Diamond said loudly at one point.
The focus of the hearing is what metrics social media platforms use to filter content, while the social media stars accuse Facebook and others of censoring their content and diminishing its reach. The duo have previously claimed unfair censorship after Facebook reportedly deemed their content to be “unsafe to the community” and blocked their page.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning, Mr. Trump praised Diamond and Silk, calling them “beautiful, wonderful women” and “warriors.”
The self-proclaimed “most outspoken and loyal” Trump supporters have gained an online following for their debriefs on politics, the Trump administration and news of the day on their Youtube channel and on Facebook and Twitter. Mr. Trump invited the internet stars to attend a few of his rallies during the 2016 campaign and were photographed in the Oval Office standing beside the president.
“Subtle and slowly Facebook used one mechanism at a time to diminish reach by restricting our page so that our 1.2 million followers would not see our content, thus silencing our conservative voices,” Diamond and Silk said in their testimony. “When we reached out to Facebook for an explanation, they gave us the run around.”
But Ari Waldman, director of the Innovation Center for Law and Technology atNew York University, said Facebook’s decision to change its algorithm so people see more posts from family and friends than news and other organizations affected far more than just Diamond and Silk, and gave examples of left-leaning groups and individuals having their posts censored.
“The result is that a lot of content gets filtered out, but no more so from the right than from the left,” Waldman said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the hearing with the two social media stars is a “spectacle” that shouldn’t be taking place when the committee should be investigating more important issues.
The two were a focus for some Republicans when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress earlier this month.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, read a message from one of his constituents in one of those hearings, saying, “Why is Facebook censoring conservative bloggers such as Diamond and Silk? Facebook called them ‘unsafe’ to the community. That is ludicrous. They hold conservative views. That isn’t unsafe.”
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