Good News! There's No Censorship!

FALSE ACCUSATION:
by Paul M. Barrett and J. Grant Sims
The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Conservatives commonly accuse the major social media companies of censoring the political right. In response to Twitter's decision on January 8, 2021, to exclude him from the platform, then-President Donald Trump accused the company of "banning free speech" in coordination with "the Democrats and Radical Left."

Two days earlier, Trump had included the ideological bias claim in an incendiary address to supporters, some of whom then participated in a riot inside the U.S. Capitol. "The radical left tries to blacklist you on social media," Trump said in his speech. "They don't let the message get out nearly as they should."

This accusation—that social media platforms suppress conservatives—riles a Republican base that has long distrusted the mainstream media and is prone to seeing public events as being shaped by murky liberal plots.

On a policy level, the bias claim serves as a basis for Republican attacks on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal law that protects platforms from liability associated with user posts and content moderation decisions. But the claim of anti-conservative animus is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it. No trustworthy large scale studies have determined that conservative content is being removed for ideological reasons or that searches are being manipulated to favor liberal interests.

Even anecdotal evidence of supposed bias tends to crumble under close examination. Take Trump's exclusion from Twitter and Facebook. These actions, while unprecedented, were reasonable responses to Trump's repeated violation of platform rules against undermining election results and inciting violence. If anything, the platforms previously had given Trump a notably wide berth because of his position, seeking to appease him, despite his demagogic and routinely false claims.

Trump has been the leading purveyor of the bias accusation, but it will not recede with the end of his presidency. In his quest to remain politically relevant, Trump almost certainly will continue to press the case via far-right media channels and/or right-wing online platforms like Parler and Gab. After getting kicked off Twitter, Trump said he might set up a platform of his own. Other Republican politicians likewise will maintain the accusation, in no small part because it resonates so powerfully with so many GOP voters.

Part 1 of this report provides an introduction and thematic overview. Part 2
charts the rise and spread of the bias claim, analyzing its various manifestations. Part 3 assesses available data showing that conservatives enjoy a prominent place on major social media platforms—a situation unlikely to be true if conservatives were being systematically suppressed. Part 4 offers a series of recommendations to the platforms and the administration of President Joe Biden, as they each consider how to respond to the bias claim. We offer a thumbnail version of those recommendations on the following page.

IBdaMann wrote:
I caught a video of Tucker Carlson in which he discussed NYU's "study" which concluded that social media does not censor conservatives, and that such claims are part of an ongoing disinformation plot by conservatives.