Ajit Pai takes on Twitter while answering on Silicon Valley’s disapproval of his proposal to repeal net neutrality rules.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday criticized social networking service Twitter for unfair selection of messages on its site. Pai was speaking in Washington on Silicon Valley’s objections to his proposed repeal of net neutrality laws.
“When it comes to an open internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” Pai said explicating that the service provider unfairly chooses messages that it decides to broadcast, Bloomberg reported. The Republican said such internet companies are bigger threat as they limit free transfer of public information.
Coming heavily on the big social media companies such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Netflix and LinkedIn, Pai said that these are “a much bigger actual threat to an open internet than broadband providers, especially when it comes to discrimination on the basis of viewpoint.”
The Trump appointed Indian American specifically targeted Twitter and brought out an instance highlighting Twitter’s doubtful selection of banning political ad “because it featured a pro life message” and “may be unsafe.”
“The company appears to have a double standard when it comes to suspending or deverifying conservative users’ accounts as opposed to those of liberal users,” he said. “This conduct is many things, but it isn’t fighting for an open market.”
In response, Twitter said the ad was blocked as “a small portion of the video used potentially inflammatory language.”
“Chairman Pai’s attack on Twitter is like a boxer losing a fight and taking wild and erratic swings,” said Chip Pickering, chief executive officer of the Incompas trade group that counts Twitter as a member, Bloomberg reported.
“Preventing hate speech and bullying behavior online is not the same thing as allowing cable companies to block, throttle and extort money from consumers and the websites they love,” Pickering said. “Twitter is an amazing platform for left, right and center. Donald Trump might not be president without it, and Chairman Pai’s plan to kill net neutrality will put Comcast and AT&T in charge of his Twitter account.”
The social networking service providers are opposing Pai’s stand on net neutrality saying that it would give phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. more control over the selection of websites they choose to broadcast.