A Republican U.S. Congressman is urging Mark Zuckerberg to “restore” the First Amendment rights of conservatives on Facebook. Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina literally waved a copy of the Constitution and repeatedly recited the First Amendment as he began questioning the Facebook CEO Wednesday afternoon.
“The standard” in the First Amendment “has been applied to private businesses – whether those are newspapers, or other media platform and I would argue that social media has now become a media platform,” the same as “other press media,” Rep. Duncan dubiously claimed.
“I think the First Amendment probably does apply and will apply,” to Facebook, Duncan said.
(It actually does not.)
“What will you do to restore the First Amendment rights of Facebook users and ensure all users are treated equally – regardless of whether they’re conservative, moderate. liberal, or what not?” he asked Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, seemingly grasping for a way to answer the question, chose not to point out the obvious: the First Amendment does not apply to Facebook, which is a corporation, not a government entity.
Not hearing the answer he wanted, Duncan went for what he really wanted.
“Conservatives are the ones that raised the awareness that their content has been pulled,” the South Carolina Congressman claimed – convinced that Facebook targets conservatives more than liberals, instead of considering that perhaps the content some conservatives choose to post to Facebook might be more offensive that the content some liberals post to Facebook.
“I don’t see the same awareness being raised by liberal organizations, liberal candidates, or policy statements,” Duncan insisted.
Blogger Joe.My.God. posted the video, calling it “Duncan’s transparent attempt at viral fame.” He adds that Duncan “demonstrat[ed] that many right wingers are utterly incapable of comprehending the very document they literally, in this case, are waving in your face.”
Watch (volume is off by default):