By Ashkhen Kazaryan
Below is an excerpt from our pubic comment. Click here to read the full submission.
In Response to the Federal Trade Commission’s Request for Information: Technology Platform Censorship
The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. We work to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled advocacy. The Future of Free Speech seeks to create a world where everyone’s right to freedom of expression is protected by law and reinforced by a culture that tolerates diverse viewpoints.
1. Conservative Voices Outperform on Social Media Platforms
Conservative accounts, influencers, and news sources have reached massive audiences across all major social media platforms. Data from the last several years shows how right-leaning voices have successfully promoted their perspectives online.
Despite having one-eighth of CNN’s following, one report found that in the last quarter of 2019, Breitbart’s Facebook page “racked up more likes, comments, and shares … (57.8 million) than The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today combined (42.6 million)” and “outpaced each of the broadcast news networks, MSNBC, and CNN.”
In 2020, a Media Matters study found that right-leaning pages garnered more total interactions than both left-leaning and non-aligned pages.
A 2021 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that Twitter’s algorithmic amplification favored right-leaning news sources over left-leaning ones in six out of seven countries studied, including the United States. This outcome reflects the mechanics of engagement-driven ranking systems and not ideological favoritism by the platform, which means that conservative voices have been successfully reaching wide audiences organically.
In 2024, the Pew Research Center looked into more than 28,000 social media accounts to identify a sample of 500 news influencers and the content they produce across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. It found that these influencers were more likely to identify with the political right than the left.
Another Pew survey showed that, since 2024, Republicans have become more likely to trust information from news outlets and social media, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
President Trump’s own social media presence remains unmatched; his accounts across platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Truth Social collectively boast nearly 170 million followers, significantly outpacing his political rivals.
From engagement metrics on Facebook to favorable algorithmic treatment on X (formerly Twitter) and strong representation among leading news influencers, the data consistently contradicts anecdotal claims about the systemic suppression of conservative voices. These patterns reflect more than just trends; they illustrate how platforms evolve in response to audience behavior, leadership, and broader shifts in public discourse.
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Ashkhen Kazaryan is a Senior Legal Fellow at The Future of Free Speech, where she leads initiatives to protect free expression and shape policies that uphold the First Amendment in the digital age.