U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-UT) speaks to reporters on his way to the Senate floor in Washington, U.S., May 16, 2017.
The outgoing chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) sent a letter to the chief executives of the five largest U.S. technology giants asking them to respond to details about their decision to restrict or permanently ban conservative user accounts.
According to Foxnews, Republican Senator Roger Wicker wrote to Apple, Facebook, Amazon.com, Alphabet and Twitter, questioning “thousands of conservative users’ accounts and content. accounts and posted content” that have been “restricted or permanently deleted.”
The companies have taken their toughest blocking action yet against President Donald Trump (Trump) in a bid to limit the reach of his influence. Last week, the tech giants claimed that Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol and that they feared Trump’s posts would continue to bring violence.
Wicker also asked the companies to explain the actions taken against Parler.
Apple, Google and Amazon also suspended the Parler App – a pro-Trump social app company – saying users on the social platform were threatening more violence. They banned downloads and use of the app in their respective app stores and web hosting services. The series of blows from the tech giant company almost immediately crippled Parler.
Wicker wrote, “Americans deserve transparency and accountability because their censorship appears to be politically biased – silencing the voices of some users and public figures.”
Twitter Inc. said Friday (Jan. 15) that it had received the letter and would respond to it. Facebook Inc. noted that the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has explained the reasons for banning President Trump’s account. Other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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