President Donald Trump’s battle with big technology companies doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.
The Hill reports that on Monday, Trump used a call on CNBC’s Squawk Box to accuse big tech companies like Facebook and Google of discriminating against him, of colluding with Democrats, and of being a part of a monopoly.
“I can tell you they discriminate against me,” he said when pressed about companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
“People talk about collusion. The real collusion is between the Democrats and these companies because they were so against me during my election run.”
Trump also highlighted the antitrust fines imposed by the European Union on United States tech companies, and suggested that these companies could be considere to be monopolies. He said that the U.S. should be raking in the settlement money, per The Verge , but instead, the continental bloc is the one taking in the rewards.
“Every week you see them going after Facebook and Apple and all of these companies… The European Union is suing them all of the time,” Trump said.
“… They’re our companies. So, [the EU is] actually attacking our companies, but we should be doing what they’re doing. They think there’s a monopoly, but I’m not sure that they think that. They just think this is easy money.”
Trump Rips Big Tech, Says the ‘Real Collusion’ Is Between Democrats and Silicon Valley https://t.co/y8X9zBrQFR pic.twitter.com/O9yU6Qvvxu
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 10, 2019
Trump has a long history of clashing with social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. As The Inquisitr reported, he has accused them of discriminating against and censoring both him and other Republicans. Per Vox , the controversy is part of an ongoing debate about what is deemed to be protected speech on digital media platforms like Facebook. Since Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects platforms from being sued for their content, websites like Facebook are safe from legal action stemming from the content of their posts. But some claim that platforms are acting as publishers by being selective about the content they provide, while at the same time claiming to be platforms in order to benefit from a legal standpoint.
More recently, YouTube announced several updates, including the service’s decision to remove hateful and supremacist content, reduce “borderline content” ?— such as the promotion of flat Earth theories— and promote more authoritative content. As The Inquisitr reported, the YouTube announcement came amid the controversy surrounding Vox video host Carlos Maza, who accused the conservative comedian and YouTube content creator Steven Crowder of harassment, which led to Crowder’s channel being demonetized.
