US President Donald Trump's position on the world's two most popular social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, seems to be very frank. CNN has informed sources that the two companies did not receive an invitation from the White House to attend the Social Media Summit on Thursday.
The sources, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, said it was no surprise that the summit would be a "right-wing grievance meeting" and was not aimed at serious discussion of some of the issues facing TEC.
A White House spokesman declined to comment on the news, the agency said.
The White House announced the summit in June and said it was an event to gather "digital leaders for strong conversations about the opportunities and challenges facing the Internet environment now."
The White House did not publicly disclose the names of the companies invited to the summit, but the Washington Post reported last week that the White House had asked for the summit a number of prominent right-wing figures who were critical of social networking companies.
According to CNN, some of these individuals claimed, often without real evidence, that companies such as Facebook and Twitter were biased against conservatives and censored their speeches. But the companies concerned denied the allegations.
Republican lawmakers and conservative media have for years claimed that companies in the Silicon Valley have a media bias against conservatives. Trump, in turn, has poured oil on fire and has repeatedly attacked major technology companies and said they need to be regulated by the government.
At a meeting earlier this year with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Trump asked about the size of his followers, Trump said Twitter makes it difficult for his supporters to follow him.
At the end of May, the White House launched an online tool that enables people to report biases in social media. Republican lawmakers in Congress also held meeting sessions over the past year, questioning social media managers about their corporate practices.