President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to slam popular social media platforms for being controlled by ‘the radical left.’
Trump launched into his tirade on Saturday morning while sharing a video of a speech given by Michelle Malkin – a right-wing conspiracy theorist who has previously questioned the number of people who have died in the Holocaust.
‘The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google,’ Trump said in his tweet. ‘The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events. Thank you Michelle!’
Trump’s tweet came after it announced that federal and state regulators in the U.S. are preparing to file antitrust lawsuits alleging Google has abused its dominance of online search and advertising to stifle competition and and boost its profits.
‘The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google,’ Trump said in his Saturday tweet. ‘The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events. Thank you Michelle!
According to a report published in The Wall Street Journal Friday, the upcoming offensive is being made by the U.S. Justice Department and the attorneys general from several states.
The Justice Department may file its case as early as this summer while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may take action in the fall, along with his peers in other states, according to the Journal.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has previously said he hoped to decide whether to pursue an antitrust case against Google by the summer. Texas and other states announced they were looking into Google’s business practices last September.
Google acknowledged it has ongoing discussions with the Justice Department and Paxton without elaborating on the nature of the talks.
‘Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support thousands of businesses, and enable increased choice and competition,’ the company said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Google has been thrust under the microscope of antitrust in the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission closed an extensive investigation into Google’s alleged abuses in 2013 without taking any action because it concluded the Mountain View, California, company wasn’t hurting consumers
Since then, Google has grown even more powerful under the umbrella of the corporate parent, Alphabet, that it spawned in five years ago. When the FTC closed its case, Google was generating annual revenue of $50 billion.
Last year, earned Alphabet raked in $162 billion in revenue.
Most of the money comes from a digital ad market that Google dominates along with social networking rival Facebook – another potential target of antitrust regulators.
There has been no word, though, whether Facebook might be sued.
On Thursday, it emerged that Facebook has created a ‘privacy committee’ on its board of directors as part of the company’s $5billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Members of the panel, which will be responsible for overseeing risks related to privacy and data use, were named in a financial filing on Wednesday, Business Insider reported.
Independent directors Peggy Alford and Robert Kimmitt will serve as committee members under chair Nancy Killefer, who joined the board in March.
Trump has regularly blasted Twitter, accusing it – along with Facebook and Google – of political bias against conservatives and even suggesting the platforms had tried to rig the election
Last year, the Trump administration launched a survey asking people to share their experiences of being censored on the various social media platforms.
There is no evidence that suggest that right-wing pages are being targeted by these sites.
Paul Singer, founder of investment management firm Elliott Management, took a hefty stake of Twitter in March with a plan to oust Jack Dorsey from his CEO role. Singer is a Republican mega-donor and backer of Trump.
Twitter came under fire for is position on political ads, along with Facebook and Google, in September after it refused to remove a misleading video ad from Trump’s campaign that targeted former Democrat Joe Biden.
Following the issue, Jack Dorsey announced Twitter was banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted and misleading messages.
‘We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…’ Dorsey tweeted back in October.
He has also repeatedly threatened to investigate or regulate them.
He has also repeatedly threatened to investigate or regulate them
Trump has regularly blasted Twitter, accusing it – along with Facebook and Google – of political bias against conservatives and even suggesting the platforms had tried to rig the election.
He has also repeatedly threatened to investigate or regulate them.
In July, he called on Congress to pass legislation that would clamp down on the firms and said Twitter should be fined for engaging in ‘possible illegal’ activity.
It remains to be seen what impact a Republican Trump supporter stakeholder will have on the social media platform’s future political stance.