Today, the Republican Majority of the House Judiciary Committee held an official hearing with pro-Trump social media personalities “Diamond and Silk,” who gave testimony to the Committee on their belief that social media companies are engaged in a plot to silence conservative voices on the Internet.

Ranking Member Nadler addressed these claims in his opening statement: 

“The witnesses will complain that Facebook has limited the ability of their followers to interact with their Facebook page.  But the data shows that their Facebook page received more total interactions in March 2018, when they were supposedly being censored, than in March 2017, fresh off of President Trump’s victory… ‘Social Media Filtering Practices and Their Effect on Free Speech’ is a fine topic for discussion—and one I would encourage you to schedule—but that isn’t what today’s hearing is about, and the Majority knows it.”

The Ranking Member asked each of the expert witnesses on the panel—including witnesses called by the Majority—whether they had any “compelling evidence whatsoever to support the notion that Facebook, Twitter, or Google intentionally suppress conservative content on their platforms.”  All three witnesses said no.

House Judiciary Republicans Derelict in Duties to Conduct Oversight

House Judiciary Democrats demonstrated that the Majority has refused to conduct oversight of the Trump Administration or hold hearings on more pressing issues like election security, privacy policies, the misuse of social media by foreign actors in the 2016 elections, and much more.

Ranking Member Nadler noted that over the past year, Judiciary Republicans have: 

• Refused Democratic requests to hold hearings on how Russian operatives leveraged social media to influence the 2016 elections;

• Refused the Congressional Black Caucus’s request to hold hearings on how those Russian influence pieces targeted minority voters;

• Blocked the Minority’s access to those advertisements when Facebook offered them, since they were offered on the condition that the Chairman join in requesting them;

• Refused to issue subpoenas—or even ask—for information from Cambridge Analytica and Giles-Parscale, two consultants for the Trump Campaign that appear to have coordinated with foreign actors during the 2016 campaign;

• Promised briefings with various social media companies, but never delivered;

• Decided that the House Judiciary Committee should be the only committee of jurisdiction not to hear from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly, after his appearances before the House Energy & Commerce Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Commerce Committee.

Legitimate Issues Must Be Addressed

Earlier this week, Judiciary and Oversight Committee Democrats conducted an interview with Christopher Wylie, a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who revealed that the firm—which the Trump Campaign used to target voters in the 2016 Presidential election—acquired and misused the personal information of millions of U.S. Facebook users.   Despite an invitation from House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Nadler, Judiciary Committee Republicans refused to participate in the interview.

During today’s hearing, Ranking Member Nadler noted that “We should be holding a hearing on this topic—but the Majority didn’t even send staff to listen to Mr. Wylie’s testimony.”

Here are some of the takeaways from Judiciary Democrats’ interview with Wylie earlier this week:

• Wylie reported that Steve Bannon said he wanted to use Cambridge Analytica to discourage specific groups of people from voting—including people likely to vote Democratic.

• Wylie stated that, as early as 2014, Bannon directed Cambridge Analytica to research what types of discontent would influence populations in the U.S., including testing messaging that was later used by the Trump campaign. 

• According to Wylie, Bannon stated that he did not care if campaign ads created and promoted through Cambridge Analytica promoted incorrect information because was trying to win a “culture war” and that “war is battle.”

• Wylie called Cambridge Analytica a “full service propaganda machine” that used misappropriated Facebook data to build a psychological profile on the entire U.S. population, map out who was most susceptible to messaging, and then spread that messaging.

Read more about the interview here.

Serious Inaccuracies Found in Diamond and Silk’s Testimony

During the hearing, Diamond and Silk, who refer to themselves as “President Donald J. Trump's Most Outspoken & Loyal Supporters” offered testimony littered with inaccuracies. The witnesses repeatedly denied ever being paid by the Trump campaign, although Federal Election Commission filings show they received a payment for field consulting.

The social media personalities also denied that Facebook communicated with them despite posts that show Facebook offering assistance and trying to connect with them to discuss their issues further.

Watch the full hearing here.

Read Ranking Member Nadler’s full statement here.

Watch Ranking Member Nadler’s opening statement here.

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