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Sen. Mazie Hirono calls Social Media Summit guests “social media’s leading racists and conspiracy theorists”

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In her opening remarks at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Google and Censorship through Search Engines,” Senator Mazie Hirono described the attendees of President Trump’s White House Social Media Summit as “a rogues’ gallery of social media’s leading racists and conspiracy theorists.”

Hirono began her opening statement by calling claims of anti-conservative bias in the tech industry “baseless.” She then moved on to describe various studies from primarily left-leaning organizations, including the non-profit Media Matters, which supposedly prove that there is no bias against conservatives on social media.

After this, Hirono started to talk about how Google will be “raked over the coals” during the hearing and said:

“Google will be accused of political motives for some common-sense actions that are entirely within their rights. Just like we saw at the President’s so-called quote “Social Media Summit” last week. President Trump invited a rogues’ gallery of social media’s leading racists and conspiracy theorists to hear about supposed censorship by tech companies but none of these people have actually been banned from any platform. Each remains free to use the megaphone social media provides to spread their messages of conspiracy and hate.”

Hirono then went on to claim that fears of being accused of bias were preventing tech companies from dealing with “the real problems of racist and harassing content on their platforms” and complained that Google-owned YouTube “dragged its feet” before punishing comedian Steven Crowder for his jokes about Carlos Maza – a punishment which was issued despite YouTube admitting that Crowder had broken none of the site’s rules.

Hirono finished by suggesting that Google isn’t doing enough to take down content and called on the full Senate Judiciary Committee to focus on what she deems to be the “real problems” presented by the tech industry and demand action.

Hirono didn’t provide any evidence for her claims about the White House Social Media Summit which featured people from multiple races and backgrounds and was attended by investigative reporters, independent journalists, lawyers, and non-profit founders. Some of those attending the Summit have also been banned from social media platforms, despite Hirono’s claims to the contrary.

Hirono’s comments come in the wake of numerous investigative reports and leaks which have provided a growing bank of evidence of anti-conservative bias inside Google.

They also come after YouTube has mass deplatformed its creators in the wake of rolling out new “hate speech” rules. In addition to this, YouTube has suggested that even more censorship will be coming when it introduces its “creator-on-creator harassment” rules.

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