Something must be done about major tech firms: Trump

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The U.S President Donald Trump has blamed major technology firms such as Facebook and Google of radical left bias. It is noteworthy that Trump is spending millions of U.S dollars in political adverts on the platforms. He wrote on Twitter including his accusation. The president repeated a claim he and many on the right have made before, namely that big tech companies reduce or minimize access to conservative content. Trump said, “Facebook, Google, and Twitter (without mentioning the Corrupt Media) are on the side of the Radical Left Democrats. But fear not, we will win anyway, just like we did before”.

Trump later appeared with right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro at the White House. He doubled down on his allegation and said Twitter was different than it used to be. He added that certain voices were not getting through. He said, “It seems to be if they’re conservative, if they’re Republicans, if they’re in a certain group there’s discrimination and big discrimination. We have to do something about it”. His allegation came as Republican congressman Devin Nunes sued Twitter for $250 million. Nunes claimed that the site was guilty of defamation and negligence. He also accused it had engaged in so-called “shadow banning”, in which Twitter users were able to post but no one else sees their messages.

It is important that Twitter has denied doing this. New data shows he is already utilizing the same firms in a major way as he prepares his reelection campaign in spite of Trump’s attacks on the big tech companies. He also did in 2016 when spent heavily on Facebook and Google. Both platforms along with Twitter were targeted by fake news and accounts that U.S prosecutors have alleged originated in Russia. The messages were designed to boost Trump’s chances of winning and hurt those of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday, as Trump was tweeting about the evils of big tech, data collated by the analytics and communications firm Bully Pulpit Interactive, showed the president’s 2020 campaign had spent almost nearly twice as much as the entire field of potential Democratic rivals combined.