Big Tech is Politically Neutral
Conger’18[Kate Conger; September 1; Tech reporter for NYT; The New York Times, “The Week in Tech: Claims of Censorship Come Through Loud and Clear.” LexisNexis]
Most tech companies strive to be politically neutral — Google, Facebook and Twitter all have political action committees that tend to donate evenly to Republicans and Democrats. Yet they’re still struggling to counter allegations of bias.
Part of the blame lies with the companies, which are consistently opaque about how their services work. This can leave users to invent conspiratorial explanations for how the companies work.
But the continued pressure on tech companies to clean up election interference on their platforms seems to be nudging them toward transparency. Several companies have introduced ad transparency tools ahead of the midterm elections, giving details about political ads that run on their platforms. Opening up about their moderation guidelines might help users understand how companies police and organize the content on their platforms.