Free Speech

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to criticism of the site and suggested that the company might be able to “determine credible voices per topic in real-time.” Dorsey was answering complaints from New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman who faulted “that everyone is treated as equally expert on various topics.”  

Shortly after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.) brought up violent Facebook threats against Republicans during a congressional hearing, the page vanished from Facebook. Facebook, however, says it is not responsible.  

In a departure from President Trump’s previous attitude towards Silicon Valley, Trump on Thursday tweeted a defense of Google against a fine levied by the European Union.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently been trying to strike a balance between cracking down on fake news, hoaxes, and hate speech and allowing a diversity of opinions on the site. In a recent interview with Recode, Zuckerberg took one of his strongest approaches in defense of free speech on the platform.  

President Trump’s team appears to be bucking the mainstream media for positive publicity and, instead, is relying on Facebook advertisements. A study shows that from May until June, Trump and his political action committee have reportedly spent approximately $274,000 on Facebook ads.

Liberal news sources appear to have a problem with more than just InfoWars: now they’re going after the Daily Caller. According to The Wall Street Journal, during an off-the-record meeting with Facebook last week, editors from BuzzFeed and HuffPost took offense to even including the Daily Caller in the meeting.

Even congressmen can’t get calls for assassination deleted from Facebook — unless they bring them up at a congressional hearing.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, came out swinging at the House Judiciary hearing about censoring conservatives. He criticized Facebook’s eagerness to address Democrat questions about Russian use of the platform, but less so about GOP inquiries.

The controversy over social media censorship of conservatives has not died down, and the House Judiciary Committee is holding a second hearing on the topic.

CNN attempted to test the limits of Facebook’s new campaign against fake news by questioning the presence of InfoWars on its site.

On Monday, YouTube announced a $25 million investment in the “future of news.” According to its official blog, one of the three members of YouTube’s original working group is Vox Media, which runs liberal news site Vox.com.  

A teenage Iranian gymnast was arrested by the Iranian government for dancing in videos that were posted on Instagram.  

Last week, the California Supreme Court ruled that the review website Yelp cannot be forced to take down negative reviews. The Associated Press reported, in a 4-3 decision, the court claimed that coercing Yelp into taking down reviews “could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform.”  

Following a Washington Post report about Twitter purging allegedly fake and suspicious accounts, President Donald Trump recommended the site also suspend the accounts of the “Failing New York Times” and the “propaganda machine for Amazon, the Washington Post.”