Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a criminal referral against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today for making materially false statements to Congress in 2018.
During hearings before both House and Senate Committees on censorship in social media, Zuckerberg repeatedly denied his company engaged in bias toward conservative individuals, speech or policies.
But Gaetz points to a Project Veritas expose that revealed Facebook’s content moderators overwhelmingly filter content that support President Donald Trump, Republican candidates for office or conservatism in general.
“Oversight is an essential part of Congress’ constitutional authority,” Congressman Gaetz states in the letter. “As a member of this body, I question Mr. Zuckerberg’s veracity, and challenge his willingness to cooperate with our oversight authority, diverting congressional resources during time-sensitive investigations, and materially impeding our work. Such misrepresentations are not only unfair, they are potentially illegal and fraudulent.”
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Bill Barr, refers Zuckerberg to the Department of Justice for an investigation into false statements made to Congress while under oath.
In June Project Veritas spoke with whistleblower Ryan Hartwig, a contractor responsible for monitoring content on Facebook. He said the average moderator deletes up to 300 posts a day with the intent of manipulating elections all over the world and punishing users for political viewpoints.
“I was seeing them interfering on a global level in elections,” Hartwig said.
Most of the content that is removed from Facebook is conservative in nature, especially if it is considered to be anti-LGBT according to Hartwig.
On additional undercover video captured by Veritas, Facebook moderators can be heard making incriminating statement, such as that moderators “rig the game so that it works on the left side.”
Photo by Gage Skidmore