White House Supports Everyone’s Constitutional Right to Speak Freely on Facebook, Other Platforms

diamond and silk
Michelle Moons
Washington, DC

In light of Facebook hearings on Capitol Hill, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders acknowledged the constitutional rights of all Americans to “speak freely” on platforms like the social media site.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced House and Senate lawmakers in hearings on Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday. One area of questioning pertained specifically to Facebook censoring of conservatives on the social media platform.

During Wednesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Rep. Marsha Blackburn asked Zuckerberg, “Do you subjectively manipulate your algorithms to prioritize or censor speech?” Zuckerberg replied that he doesn’t think what they are doing is “censoring speech” and that they do censor “types of content like terrorism.” Blackburn shot back, “Let me tell you something right now, Diamond and Silk is not terrorism.”

Diamond and Silk are fervent supporters of President Donald Trump who publish their commentary on YouTube and other internet platforms. Their Facebook page has over 1.4 million “likes.” Though Zuckerberg claimed in the congressional hearing that Facebook made an error in censoring their page and that the company had been in touch with them, the women posted Wednesday night that Facebook had not contacted them since an April 5 communication in which Facebook called the two “Unsafe to the Community.”

During Wednesday afternoon’s White House press briefing, Breitbart News asked Sanders, “Is the White House concerned with Facebook’s efforts to silence conservatives?  It’s been a topic on the Hill today and yesterday.”

Sanders said “certainly,” clarifying that the White House supports the right of “everyone” to “speak freely on a number of platforms across this country.” She continued, “We certainly support the Constitution that provides that right.”

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana 

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