Conservative Coalition Calls on Tech Giants to Provide Plans for Eliminating Bias and Censorship

On Tuesday, the Media Research Center (MRC) and the recently formed coalition, Conservatives Against Online Censorship, called on tech giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to release blueprints by September 1 for how they will address the four following key areas of concern:

• Provide Transparency:  Conservatives need to know that they are being treated the same as all others. Social media companies have operated in a black-box environment, only releasing anecdotes about reports on content and users when they think it necessary. This needs to change. {snip}
• Provide Clarity on ‘Hate Speech’: {snip} If companies can’t tell users clearly what it is, then they shouldn’t try to regulate it. The definitions of “hate speech” must be clear, not subject to interpretation.
• Provide Equal Footing for Conservatives: Top social media firms, such as Google and YouTube, have chosen to work with leftist groups that are actively opposed to the conservative movement, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those companies need to make equal room for conservative groups as advisers to offset this bias. That same attitude should be applied to employment diversity efforts. Tech companies need to embrace viewpoint diversity.
• Mirror the First Amendment: Tech giants should afford their users nothing less than the free speech and free exercise of religion embodied in the First Amendment as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. {snip}

In April, the Media Research Center released an extensive report documenting incidents of bias and censorship against conservatives by Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. {snip} To date, Twitter has been unresponsive.

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