Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz told Tucker Carlson on Friday that he believed the Twitter shadowban on several conservative accounts was likely intentional.
“I am certain there were only 4 members of Congress who had their voices suppressed on Twitter,” he said. “Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, and Devin Nunes. That would be one hell of a coincidence.”
All four congressmen have been at the forefront of the push for more documents regarding bias within the FBI and the FISA warrants that spurred the Russia investigation. Additionally, Reps. Meadows and Jordan were the driving force behind the articles of impeachment filed last week against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — and Jordan just announced this week that he plans to campaign for Speaker of the House.
Gaetz has filed a complaint against Twitter for the shadowban, saying that he could go through the FEC because Twitter’s actions were akin to a reverse donation of services. “They can absolutely institute fines against any company that makes a corporate donation,” Gaetz explained. “Here the donation is allowing Democrats and people running against me to have access to element of the search feature I didn’t have access to. Why? Twitter said it was my behavior that resulted in this. I don’t know what behavior that is. Do we trust tech companies to just decide with no transparency to limit access?”
Gaetz also pointed out that, in order to enjoy federal protection against certain lawsuits, Twitter and other social media platforms were obligated to present themselves as neutral platforms.
Carlson wasn’t so sure, responding, “Google has a monopoly as does YouTube and they routinely suppress political views they disagree with, and the Congress does absolutely nothing about it.”
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