President Trump said Friday he opposes the idea of regulating social media companies, even as he continues to criticize tech companies for what he says is their anti-conservative bias.
“I hate the concept of regulation on [social] media,” Trump told Fox Business Network, before alleging “collusion between the Democrats and these people,” citing slower growth in his own Twitter following.
“I know exactly what they’re doing. They take people off my account. They make it very hard for people to join,” Trump said. “I had a time very recently ago where I was picking up hundreds of thousands of people in a very short period of time.”
Trump this week said “we have to do something” about bias in big tech companies, but didn’t say what might be done. While that prompted talk of regulation, Trump backed away from that idea when host Maria Bartiromo pressed him on whether he wants to “break these companies up, one thing [Sens.] Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren agree on.”
“I don’t like the concept of it,” Trump responded. “I would like everybody to be free. But they don’t treat us the same way as they treat liberal Democrats.”
Last year, as some conservatives alleged politically motivated “shadow banning” of their content on platforms, Trump cited a decline in Twitter followers and said unflattering news was often at the top of Google News. Defenders of the large web companies noted Twitter had removed large numbers of fake accounts, and said algorithms and efforts to address abusive content explained other issues.
Trump’s allegations of alleged bias typically feature three companies: Twitter, Facebook, and Google. He cited the three companies by name at the White House on Tuesday.
Although publicly critical, Trump recently passed up an opportunity to address his concerns behind closed doors when Google CEO Sundar Pichai visited the White House in December for a discussion about artificial intelligence. A source told the Washington Examiner that Trump discussed his optimism about trade negotiations, including with China, but did not mention alleged bias.
