Cruz, Hawley Want the FTC to Probe Social Media Content Curation
- Senators say big tech firms have major influence on speech
- Lawmakers and Trump have said conservatives are being censored
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Two key Republican senators pressed the Federal Trade Commission to investigate how Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Twitter Inc. decide what content appears on their social media platforms, calling the companies’ power a potential threat to democracy.
Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri made their demand in a letter sent to the FTC on Monday, a day before a hearing by a Senate panel into social media bias that will feature testimony from a top Google executive. The letter and hearing come just days after President Donald Trump aired similar grievances at a White House summit of conservative tech critics, fringe social media voices and GOP lawmakers including Hawley.