A top Republican in the House is taking up Donald Trump’s Jr. call for accountability from Instagram after the eldest son of President Trump shared a video that showed a warning message to being sent to users of the social media platform searching his name.
“#StopTheBias,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Saturday in response to Trump Jr.’s tweet linking to an Instagram post expressing his outrage. McCarthy is seen as a front-runner to replace Paul Ryan as speaker of the House when he retires at the end of his term.
#StopTheBias https://t.co/QfOreI3z4w
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) May 26, 2018
McCarthy is getting a boost from one of Trump’s Jr.’s siblings, President Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who will head to California next month to raise money for Protect the House PAC alongside the congressman.
The message that evoked outrage from Trump Jr. read: “Posts with words or tags you’re searching for often encourage behavior that can cause harm and even lead to death. If you’re going through something difficult, we’d like to help.”
Tagging Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, which owns Instagram, Trump Jr. wrote alongside the video: “REALLY?!?! Are you fricken kidding me? @zuck this is insane. I get that my 3 year old Chloe can be pretty aggressive as are a few of my humorous memes, but this is ridiculous. If this account ‘could cause harm and even lead to death’ we have serious problems.”
“The #shadowban nonsense and the hysteria RE any conservative thought has to stop,” he added.
When the Washington Examiner attempted to replicate what Trump Jr.’s video shows in a search for his name, the warning message did not show up. Instagram didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some social media platforms have been subject to criticism by Republicans over alleged censorship of conservative content, including Facebook, which prompted the company to commit to an internal review.
Conservative publishers have been particularly vocal about possible Facebook bias hurting their traffic numbers following an algorithm change to its newsfeed in January. At the time, Zuckerberg said he had asked his productions teams to “make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local. And we’re starting next week with trusted sources.” The move prompted backlash from prominent conservative figures and outlets, who claimed they were being targeted.
The issue was broached during Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony earlier last month. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressured Zuckerberg to explain what many see as Facebook’s censorship of conservatives, saying Americans are worried about the platform’s “pervasive pattern of political bias.”
Zuckerberg said he understand where that concern was coming from, as “Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left-leaning place.” He also said it is a “fair concern” that he was tried to “root out.”
