A PYMNTS Company

US: Sens. Hawley, Cruz seek FTC investigation into social media

By  |  July 15, 2019

A pair of Republican senators have called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “tech censorship practices,” reported Bloomberg.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    Senators Josh Hawley (Montana) and Ted Cruz (Texas) sent a letter to all five commissioners (the majority are Republicans) to ask them to study how tech companies curate content “due to the enormous influence” they have over speech and what they called the “alarming and endless possibilities for abuse.”

    “Big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter exercise enormous influence on speech,” the two Republican senators wrote in the letter, which Hawley’s office provided. “They control the ads we see, the news we read, and the information we digest. And they actively censor some content and amplify other content based on algorithms and intentional decisions that are completely nontransparent.”

    The request comes as Republicans increasingly allege that the companies engage in systematic anti-conservative bias, an unsupported claim. But the possibilities for abuse “are alarming and endless,” including potentially swaying elections, the senators claim.

    Full Content: Bloomberg

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.