Trump Accuses Social Media of Discriminating Against Conservatives

The US president has criticized social media for silencing conservatives amid the recent Vice report, revealing that Twitter was gagging right-wing lawmakers on its platform. Responding to Vice's request on the issue, a Twitter spokesperson explained that some accounts are not automatically populating in their search box and "shipping a change to address this."

The president went on to talk about censorship on the social media platform, explaining how he views the idea of limiting the ability to see some accounts.

Trump once again reminded that this situation "cannot be allowed to happen", saying that every person, both good or bad, should have the right to participate.

'Proving Trump Right': Twitter Abuzz Over Media Campaign Targeting US President

16 August 2018, 13:27 GMT

In late July, Vice revealed that Twitter was using "shadow banning": narrowing the ability of users to search for prominent Republicans. Thus, the search for any of them or their names will no longer auto-populate in the drop-down search box. Though they could be still found if you do a full search, which, as Vice noted, is more cumbersome, and the accounts will auto-populate if you already follow the person in question.

The media went further, demanding answers from the social media platform, emailing screenshots, illustrating the problem. The report says that "social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American," explaining that Twitter "owes the public answers to what's really going on."