Far-right conspiracy theorist

Trump accuses social media giants of 'silencing millions of people'

By STEPHANIE MURRAY and CRISTIANO LIMA

President Donald Trump accused social media platforms of “silencing millions of people” in a tweet on Friday, again rebuking tech companies over their content moderation decisions.

“Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people,” the president tweeted. “Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!”

The missive comes amid a bevy of criticism from Republican officials over how social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have treated conservatives on their platforms.

Twitter has come under fire from GOP lawmakers and the president over allegations they have limited the visibility of posts by Republicans online — implementing a so-called “shadow ban.” But the company has denied it filters content on the basis of political viewpoints.

Last week, Trump accused tech companies of “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” pledging that his administration “won’t let that happen.”

Earlier this month, tech giants Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify stripped content from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their sites. The Infowars star often peddled racist and anti-Semitic theories to his scores of followers. But Jones remains on the president's social media of choice: Twitter.