U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor criticizing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his testimony during a social media trial in Los Angeles and raised concerns about alleged bias in Apple News.
Senator Blackburn referenced recently released court documents indicating that almost one in five teenagers encountered unwanted nudity or sexual images on Instagram. She stated, “New court documents made public last week revealed that nearly 1 in 5 young teenagers report seeing ‘nudity or sexual images on Instagram’ that they didn’t want to see. 1 in 5.” She continued, “That’s just one shocking fact that we have learned through a landmark trial in California that is focused on how social media platforms harm American children.”
Blackburn criticized Zuckerberg’s response during his testimony, saying, “It is appalling what these companies have done. Yet when he testified last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his record of denial—while sitting just feet away from parents who have tragically lost their children to social media harms.” She added, “Once again, Zuckerberg asserted that there is no link between youth social media use and worse mental health outcomes. But Meta’s own research has shown the exact opposite.”
Turning her attention to Apple News, Blackburn cited reports suggesting systematic suppression of right-leaning news outlets by the platform while amplifying left-leaning sources. According to Blackburn: “According to shocking new reports, Apple has suppressed right-leaning publications while boosting left-leaning outlets, turning the app into a tool of political propaganda for the left.” She referenced an analysis by the Media Research Center: “The Media Research Center, a watchdog group, analyzed every story featured by the app during the mornings of January 1 to January 31.” She continued: “Of the 620 top stories featured, 440 were published by left-leaning outlets. The remainder came from centrist or unaffiliated sources. Zero stories were published by right-leaning outlets. Zero.”
She also mentioned another study showing similar findings over a two-week period in October: “A separate study analyzed stories featured on Apple News over a two-week span in October and once again found zero articles from right-leaning publications. Fifty-four percent came from left-leaning sources.”
Blackburn argued this was part of a broader pattern by technology companies over many years: “We’ve seen this playbook before. For more than a decade, social media platforms suppressed conservative speech.” She gave examples such as being banned for objecting to movements like BLM or having posts suppressed regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election.
“This censorship undermined the free and open debate that has sustained our nation for 250 years,” she said.
“Apple has another thing coming if they think Big Tech can pull this off again,” Blackburn concluded.
Senator Blackburn represents Tennessee in the U.S. Senate and maintains offices across several cities including Memphis and Nashville (official website). Her work includes advocacy for veterans’ care and online child protections (official website). In addition to serving on committees related to finance and commerce, she chairs subcommittees focused on consumer protection and privacy issues (official website).
