After Trump EO, FTC Fielded Complaints About Facebook, Twitter
The FTC received at least two complaints through July 13 in response to President Donald Trump’s May 28 social media executive order (see 2007100052). The filings, which we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, allege “deception/misrepresentation” by Facebook and Twitter.
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The first complaint, filed May 29, was submitted by Charlottesville, Virginia, Republican Committee Chairman Dan Moy. He claimed Facebook wrongly removed a video clip he posted to his committee’s page. The April 21 post showed a 60-second video clip of an "unedited open mic recording prior to the Presidential COVID Press Conference of the day before,” the complaint said. He alleged Facebook labeled the post as fake and cited an article in Chinese as proof of its inauthenticity.
Moy said he used Google Translate to determine the Chinese article claimed his group’s video is “evidence of some outlandish CIA plot.” Facebook gave “no apparent way to protest their censor and gives no accreditation to the identify (sic) of the ‘fact checking’ censor,” he said. The platform is interfering with the committee’s free speech rights and the political process, he wrote. He cited the EO’s direction for the FTC to “consider taking action” to prohibit unfair and deceptive practices by entities covered under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The committee and Facebook didn’t comment.
The FTC and Facebook haven't responded to the committee, Moy told us Friday. “I think it’s hilarious," he said, claiming Facebook doesn't allow any mechanism for appeal. It's an American company blocking open discourse, he said, claiming this isn't the first time the platform has censored harmless content.
The complaints haven’t “necessarily been verified,” the agency wrote in response to the FOIA. “You should make your own judgment.” An agency spokesperson cited a previous statement on the EO: “The FTC is committed to robust enforcement of consumer protection and competition laws, including with respect to social media platforms, and consistent with our jurisdictional authority and constitutional limitations.”
A second complaint was filed June 7 by an individual in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, claiming “censorious behaviour” by Twitter. Moy identified himself, but the agency withheld the identity of the filer in Florida.
That complaint said the filer's Twitter handle, which had more than 3,000 followers, was banned from the platform without reason. The filing said the individual runs a podcast that gets 1,300 live viewers each week and “a website that garners half a billion hits per month.” Twitter hasn’t responded to emails, has no phone support and is “completely inaccessible to the general public,” the person wrote. “I cannot communicate with my followers and they cannot communicate with me.” Twitter didn’t comment.
Political pressure in EOs won’t sway the FTC, Chairman Joe Simons recently wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., in a letter we obtained through a separate FOIA. The EO directs the FTC to consider “whether complaints allege violations of law that implicate” specific policies set forth in the order. The EO describes platforms like Twitter and Facebook as the “critical means of promoting the free flow of speech and ideas,” which “should not restrict protected speech.” The order directs the FTC to consider “developing a report describing such complaints and making the report publicly available, consistent with applicable law.”