[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5664]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                FACEBOOK SHOULD SHARE CONSERVATIVE NEWS

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, a recent story from the tech blog 
Gizmodo details Facebook's alleged efforts to suppress conservative 
views in its popular trending news section.
  Former curators of the trending news section said they were routinely 
told to ignore news stories of interest to conservative readers. 
Censoring stories from popular conservative news sites to fit a liberal 
political agenda does a severe disservice to the American people.
  A recent Pew Research Center study found that two-thirds of American 
adults use Facebook to get news. Facebook has an obligation and a 
public responsibility not to silence conservative voices. Facebook 
should give the American people an honest appraisal of the news when it 
comes to deciding what is trending on its Web site. Anything less is 
intentionally trying to manipulate public opinion to promote a liberal 
agenda.

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