U.S. Justice Dept. to investigate if social media companies are ‘stifling’ free exchange of ideas

U.S. government lawyers will be looking into whether social media companies have been “intentionally stifling” the free exchange of ideas online.

The news comes after U.S. President Donald Trump accused Google of censoring him and after a Wednesday senate committee hearing dedicated to “foreign influence operations’ use of social media.”

READ MORE: Google refutes claim that website promoted Obama’s speeches but not Donald Trump’s

In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney General Devin O’Malley said he listened to the day’s meeting and would be going one step further.

“The Attorney General has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms,” the statement read.

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Officials in the Trump administration have also said they will look into regulating Alphabet Inc.’s Google search engine after Trump accused it of displaying only negative news and not promoting his state of the union speeches when they’ve previously promoted former president Barack Obama’s.

At the time Trump said large social media companies should not be allowed to “control what we can and cannot see.”

READ MORE: Trump team suggests regulating Google — what does that entail?

Some Republicans have also accused social media companies of being biased against Trump and other conservatives.

But experts previously told Global News that research has shown that Google and other social media companies use personalization, which is going to “give you more of what you already like rather than more of what Google may or may not like.”

Trump has also taken aim at Twitter for allegedly “shadow banning” some conservatives – a practice that limits the natural reach of posts without telling the user. There was no evidence provided to show Twitter used the practice.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has also criticized the social media companies for banning him and his website Infowars from their platforms.

— With files from Reuters