Rand Paul: Facebook Will Have to Convince Conservatives It's Not the Enemy If It Wants to Stay Profitable

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks during an event at the University of Chicago's Ida Noyes Hall in Chicago on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew A. Nelles)

Facebook is reeling after the New York Times released an article pointing to its lack of action against alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and pegging George Soros with funding anti-Facebook rhetoric, and as a result, is watching its stock tank.

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According to CNN, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has a solution for Facebook if it wants to remain profitable, and it’s essential to stop discriminating against conservatives, which it will have to do on its own as a privately owned company, and without the force of government.

“It’s a privately owned company,” Paul told CNN on Thursday. “Most times, conservatives, we don’t want to over-regulate private businesses, but they do have sort of a monopoly on this sort of social exchange in speech.”

“So, what I’ve been saying for a while is that we need to look at the barriers to entry that government might be creating,” Paul continued.

“I think if it gets so bad that they don’t allow conservative viewpoints on Facebook, I think you will get to a point where people will leave in droves,” Paul said. “So Facebook, if they want to keep making money, are going to have to convince conservatives that they’re not the enemy.”

https://youtu.be/a8aMficr1rU?t=1546

People already are leaving Facebook, or at least beginning to split their time between up and coming social networking sites such as Minds.com, which relies more on user donations than business ad dollars to keep running.

Conservatives and others on the right have every reason to move there as well. Facebook is notorious for censoring or even punishing conservatives on their platform. Former Facebook employees have confessed to suppressing news friendly to conservatives so that the general populace didn’t see it.

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Furthermore, according to The Hill, the social media corporation ousted a top exec for donating to an anti-Clinton group.

These are just a couple of examples of Facebook’s bias against the right, and more seem to reveal themselves as time goes on. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as, by Zuckerburg’s own admittance, there is a massive bias in Silicone Valley against the right. While the billionaire CEO says there is no directive to target conservatives, it’s clearly happening, and the right isn’t pleased.

However, Paul is right in his thinking that in order to broaden its base, the people at Facebook will have to become far more accepting of ideas they may find disagreeable.

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