The Trump administration has made a provocative move against the anti-extremist policies of online platforms by encouraging users who have been censored to complain.
Reading rather like one of Trump's tweets, excessive capitalization and all, the new site encourages users to complain if they believe their accounts have been suspended, banned, or reported because of political bias.
"SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH," the message reads.
Users - who must be citizens or permanent residents -are asked to provide their names, contact information, social media accounts and screenshots to back up their complaints. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter are all cited as possible targets.
Many governments around the world are working to try and remove hate speech from online platforms. After the recent terrorist attack in New Zealand, for example, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Twitter signed up for the Christchurch Call to Action, pledging to do more to counter online extremism.
However, unlike other nations, the Trump administration has refused to back the campaign, saying it was 'not currently in a position to join the endorsement'.
And Trump, as well as other right-wingers, have long complained that their views are being suppressed. Earlier this year, Trump alleged that Facebook, Google and Twitter all favored Democrat users, while unreasonably blocking Republicans.
When far-right users including Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos were banned from Twitter, Trump complained: "This is the United States of America - and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH!"
It's not at all clear how the White House plans to use all the information it's collecting to persuade online platforms to change their policies. It does, though, reserve the right to use the data for its own purposes.
As pointed out by Mashable, the survey has a truly extraordinary 'privacy' policy that allows the US government to 'use, edit, display, publish, broadcast, transmit, post, or otherwise distribute all or part of the Content', adding that 'You should not post any information that you do not wish to become public'. Users may want to think twice before they sign up.
