Whitehouse argues it is treated unfairly by social media

This article from the Verge explains that the White House believes conservatives are being treated unfairly by social media companies and that it intends to make this a campaign issue in the next election. Pointing to the lack of transparency in social media services explanations for how ranking of content works or how the decision is made to block certain sites, it evidently follows that something nefarious is afoot.

In an effort to collect its own data, the White House now offers a form users can use to report what they feel is political bias directed at them. I would suggest that this data collection be viewed with some caution as you are asked to provide a “little information about yourself” before getting to the issue you want to report. The page also contains multiple ad trackers. I am not claiming these “features” are unusual. I am just suggesting that use of this site should be understood to involve the collection of information about you. I guess if you sign in with a report you are a supporter and don’t mind having your name and information entered into a database.

Are Trump supporters not being treated equally online? The lack of transparency of social media companies make them vulnerable to all kinds of claims. They protect their “methods” as as business secrets. It is true that Breitbart News, Alex Jones, and Russian bots have been “deprecated”. I assume most would accept these limitations on open access. Beyond blocking certain individuals for hate speech and the elimination of bots falsely spreading content, it would be interesting to know exactly what these claims of discrimination involve. Conservative posts are less likely to be passed on to “friends”? Trump tweets magically disappear and don’t get to his followers?

In an era in which “fake news” claims are made by politicians against news sources that hire actual reporters, it is hard to know what citizens expect as proof. Perhaps this is the intent.

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