We’ve been censored

‘We’ve been censored,’ Diamond and Silk tell Congress

By ASHLEY GOLD

A House Judiciary Committee hearing headlined by pro-Trump video-bloggers Diamond and Silk quickly devolved into yelling, partisan bickering and questions about whether they lied under oath Thursday — just hours after the president praised them as "warriors."

Diamond and Silk, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, have been battling with Facebook since last fall, when the social media giant changed its terms of service for pages that earn ad money without first notifying them. Facebook has since repeatedly offered to make amends, but Diamond and Silk continue to say the company is silencing them.

President Donald Trump, on a phone call to "Fox & Friends" shortly before the hearing, called the duo "amazing ... beautiful, wonderful women."

Judiciary Republicans summoned the pair to Washington to air allegations of anti-conservative bias in tech companies' content moderation practices. But the sisters raised eyebrows in the hearing room when they denied receiving payments from Trump’s presidential campaign, despite FEC filings showing they had.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) asked Hardaway if she had ever been paid by the Trump campaign. She said no.

“You’ve never been paid by the Trump campaign,” Lee deadpanned back, and Hardaway said no again.

“Not $5, not $100…,” Jackson said. “What about $1,274.94?” she said twice, to objections from Hardaway.

That figure is the amount that Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Diamond and Silk on Nov. 22, 2016, according to the FEC filings, which said the payment was for “field consulting.”

Richardson later called the figure "fake news" when questioned further by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). She acknowledged, however, that the two did receive that sum as reimbursement for air travel affiliated with a Trump campaign event.

Richardson further suggested that Jeffries, who is African-American, was targeting them because they're black. "I don't see you walking up to a white person and saying you shouldn't be monetizing that," she said.

The exchanges were hardly the only unconventional moments in the unusually lively hearing. Diamond and Silk frequently raised their voices and lawmakers talked over each other, undaunted by the pounding of the chairman's gavel.

"Shame on the people who don't see we've been censored. But when the Black Lives Matter people do it, everyone is up in arms!" Hardaway said at the hearing. "Let me just say this right here. If the shoe was on the other foot and Mark Zuckerberg was a conservative, and we were liberals, all fences and all chains would've broke loose, you know it and I know it!"

Conservatives have long slammed major internet platforms for what they say is unfair treatment, citing incidents like conservatives losing their "verified" status on Twitter and videos from right-leaning video bloggers being demonetized — that is, blocked from earning ad revenue — on Facebook and YouTube.

Diamond and Silk said they've seen many examples of Facebook censoring conservatives, such as Sarah Palin and Trump, and that friends have told them they've had trouble finding their page on Facebook. "It's not fair for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg to dictate to people and tell them what they can and cannot see in their news feed," Hardaway said. "I thought this was a platform for all ideas."

Questioning from Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia drew yelled responses, as Diamond and Silk repeatedly claimed that Facebook is censoring them and keeping them from making money from their page. Johnson pointed out that their page had been very successful, and that appearing before the committee could make them even more money and garner them even more followers. Aides and lawmakers struggled to keep straight faces.

“You’ve made a ton of money off of Facebook, isn’t that correct?” Johnson asked. He noted that Trump had introduced them at a rally and said they were incredibly successful.

“We didn’t bash Facebook. What we did was brought it to the light, that Facebook has been censoring conservative voices like ourselves!” Hardaway said.

"I'm just astounded this committee would stoop to this level to be positioning you all to make more money,” Johnson said.

The pair's testimony came after Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the committee, kicked off the hearing by slamming Twitter, Facebook and YouTube owner Google for declining to show up to the hearing, and said those companies "manage content on their platforms as they see fit."

Democrats including Reps. Jim Himes (Conn.) and Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), the committee's ranking member, said the hearing was merely an excuse to trot out a largely debunked narrative that Facebook singled out Diamond and Silk for censorship.

“House Republicans have no time for substantive oversight of the Trump administration, or election security, or privacy policy, or even a discussion about the wisdom of regulating social media platforms — but they have made time for Diamond and Silk," Nadler said. "They have prioritized this spectacle over every other conversation we could be having today.”

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who testified in the hearing's first panel, has had her own run-ins with social media. The Tennessee Republican accused Twitter of censorship last October when the company briefly barred her from advertising her Senate campaign launch video on the platform over language deemed "inflammatory." In the video, Blackburn boasted of fighting Planned Parenthood and said "we stopped the sale of baby body parts." Twitter said the line violated its ad policies, but later reversed its decision.

During the hearing, Blackburn insisted Diamond and Silk's concerns were legitimate. She said social media companies seem to exclusively target conservative content for removal.

"I had the ability to fight back. Diamond and Silk had the ability to fight back. But what about the thousands of others being thrown out of our new public squares for no good reason?" she said. "We are here today to speak up for them, and we are here today to speak up for free speech."