This blistering self-own was not some one-time tactical misstep on Hawley’s part: He has repeatedly called for antitrust action against Facebook on the grounds that as a monopolist, the social media company exerts a de facto censorship power over conservative speech, and he has repeatedly done so on rival social media platform Twitter.
Hawley’s Twitter-based attempts to establish that Facebook is the only game in town for political speech have in fact established precisely the opposite. There’s obviously a competitor. He’s using it.
This is roughly the quality of conservative gripes against big tech: Far from being overtly hostile to conservative speech, Facebook has actually become a haven for right-of-center media, with conservative outlets regularly dominating charts of the site’s best performing content. That proved especially true in the run-up to the election. As Politico reported in September, “the Facebook posts with the most engagement in the United States most days—measured by likes, comments, shares, and reactions—are from conservative voices outside the mainstream media.” President Donald Trump’s personal page also regularly topped the Facebook charts.
