I was as surprised as anyone when someone told me that President Donald J. Trump was defending TikTok, but I was not surprised when I saw that that rumor intelligence was not true.
As Trump posted on Truth Social, Facebook is the real enemy in the battle for the hearts and minds of American voters.
It is not a stretch to say that TikTok is the Facebook killer. Just when Facebook is struggling to compete and rejigger its pre-TikTok business model, it would be absurd for conservatives to step up and take down the enemy Facebook cannot beat on its own.
My RedState colleague Mike Miller wrote about his struggles with the president’s stand in his piece: “Does Trump’s Flip-Flop on TikTok Say Anything About a Potential Second Term for the Former President?”
As Miller points out, Trump was reacting to the Axios report on the bipartisan momentum against TikTok on Capitol Hill, which, given that outlet’s niche as an establishment newsletter, signaled that a move against TikTok had the green light.
It was time for Trump to step in, which is what he did.
I am not being so bold as to suggest that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but my own experience with Facebook treachery is enough to make me agree with Trump.
Gaetz: Zuckerberg lied to Congress about his censoring Trump, conservatives
In the tumultuous summer of 2020, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R.-Fla.) struck a blow for democracy when he referred Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for making materially false statements made to Congress while testifying under oath.
On April 10, 2018, Mr. Zuckerberg testified in a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The next day, Mr. Zuckerberg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On both occasions, members of Congress asked Mr. Zuckerberg about allegations that Facebook censored and suppressed content supportive of President Donald Trump and other conservatives. In his responses, Mr. Zuckerberg repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics. Mr. Zuckerberg also dismissed the suggestion that Facebook exercises any form of editorial manipulation. However, recent reports from Project Veritas, featuring whistleblowers who worked as Facebook’s “content moderators,” have shown ample evidence of such bias and manipulation.
I was working media relations and other projects for Project Veritas at the time, and our undercover reporting revealed how Facebook censorship operated.
First, Facebook said it would never restrict political speech; it only censors content that is hateful or encourages violence. The next step was too easy. Their moderators ruled that political speech supporting Trump or conservative candidates and causes was hateful and that hate speech from the left was actually political.
Project Veritas had two moderators working undercover in different locations for at least four months each, so the evidence of this bias was overwhelming.
Catching Zuckerberg giving false testimony was a case of happenstance. That is, I happened to have a conversation with a Facebook insider, who told me how Zuckerberg was trained to testify before Congress.
It was amazingly simple. Whenever Zuckerberg was asked a question, he would rephrase the question himself using the phrase: “What I think you are asking me is this…” Then, he would, in effect, ask himself a question without the perilous bite or gotcha embedded in the original question.
As long as Zuckerberg was answering his own tee-ball questions, he was safe.
I was convinced that he would have to screw up sometimes, though, so I went over hours of his Capitol Hill testimony. In that search, I found instances when he forgot to rephrase the question—and asserted that his content moderation had no political bias—content our undercover insiders exposed, which is proven in court would mean he perjured himself—and once Gaetz and his staffers were convinced the congressman launched.
As you would have guessed if you did not remember this episode in the struggle against left-wing social media companies, the Justice Department did nothing with the referral, and it expired with that session of Congress alone and untouched.
Roughly a month after Gaetz sent his referral to Attorney General William Barr, I called Barr’s press office for a status report.
Yes, they had received the referral, but no, there had been no action taken.
She was not audibly laughing, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
Zuckerbucks in 2020 cycle
Later, thanks to Citizens United, David Bossie, and others, we learned what else Facebook and Zuckerberg were up to in the 2020 cycle.
By creating organizations such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life, Center for Election Integrity and Research, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Zuckerberg spent more than $400 million in efforts to defeat Trump.
The CZI is significant because 10 days before Trump’s inauguration, Zuckerberg hired President Barack Obama’s guru David Plouffe, author of the 2020 book “A Citizen’s Guide to Beating Donald Trump, to run the organization.
In the 2024 cycle, Plouffe is reported to have retired from politics, but as long as Zuckerberg and Facebook are still swinging, I am concerned.
