Texas Congressman "I think the American public has a right to know if Facebook is censoring conservatives"

Americans have “every right to know” if Facebook has a liberal bias and is censoring conservative content on its “Trending” topics list, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said Thursday.

“I think liberal media bias is a huge problem among TV, cable, newspapers and social media. It’s all-pervasive,” Smith told CNSNews.com.

“So the charges by the former [Facebook] employees that there was a liberal bias at Facebook did not surprise me. And to my knowledge, it has not been adequately addressed.”

Smith added that Congress should not play any role in the ongoing controversy. “But I do think the American people should insist that all the media, including Facebook, are unbiased and objective,” he said.

“I don’t think the government has any role. The First Amendment allows Facebook to say whatever they want to say,” he told CNSNews.

“However, I do strongly believe that the American people have every right to know whether a source of their information has a liberal bias or not.

“Facebook has a huge following. I think somewhat on the order of two-thirds of the American people turn to Facebook for at least some of their information. I’m for truth in advertising. If Facebook has a liberal bias, I think the American people need to know that. And they are already skeptical of the media bias.”