House Republicans have added Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to their investigation of online search platforms in relation to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Their top concern is the possibility that government agencies may have pressured tech companies to suppress information about the July 13 shooting.
Both Meta and Google faced scrutiny in the wake of the shooting when users observed irregularities with their platforms’ responses to the incident.
While associated Google queries omitted references to Trump and returned news articles about Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, Meta’s AI chatbot told users that the assassination attempt was a “fictional” event, the letter stated.
Earlier in August, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sought Google’s explanation for its search function’s errors. Now, Comer is seeking the same from Meta, requesting all documents concerning its AI chatbot’s design and the internal policies governing its approach to search results Meta deems “harmful or dangerous.”
“In a small number of cases, Meta AI continued to provide incorrect answers, including sometimes asserting that the event didn’t happen,” the company said, adding that it was working to address the issue, which has since been resolved.
Meta also stated that a fact-check label was incorrectly placed on an authentic photo of Trump taken minutes after he was shot. The company attributed the error to its system’s confusing the image for a doctored version of the photo that was circulating on the platform.
Referencing those explanations in his letter, Comer said the committee appreciated them but remained concerned, “especially against the backdrop of an alarming pattern of speech suppression and censorship peddled through technology and social media companies.”
As an example, the congressman cited Facebook’s suppression of the New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Zuckerberg has since revealed that the social media company’s decision to censor the story was based on misinformation warnings from the FBI.
“On behalf of the American people, the Committee is dedicated to fully understanding when and how information is being suppressed or modified by social media companies, whether it be due to technical error, a policy intended to ensure safety, or a specific intent to mislead,” Comer wrote.
A Meta spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the company is working with the Oversight Committee to respond to its requests.
“Americans rely upon prominent internet search engines such as Google to gather news and information critical to their understanding of national politics and events—and never more so than during a Presidential election season,” Comer wrote.
The Epoch Times has contacted Google for comment.
