August 21, 2020

President Donald Trump has personally pushed the head of the Federal Trade Commission to aid his crusade against alleged political bias in social media, according to two people familiar with the conversations — an unusually direct effort by a president to bend a legally independent agency to his agenda.

Trump’s efforts have included at least one meeting in recent months in the Oval Office with Republican FTC Chair Joseph Simons, in which the president said he wanted the agency to take action on social media companies’ alleged censorship of conservatives, according to a person familiar with the conversation. A second person confirmed that Trump and Simons met in the White House and discussed the executive order, but declined to describe the tone of the conversation.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the private discussions.

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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/21/trump-ftc-chair-social-media-400104