But Google, Facebook and Twitter weren’t
invited, their representatives confirmed. And
their leaders may be more likely to turn up at
an annual media industry conference in Sun
Valley, Idaho, a venue oriented more toward
high-stakes deal-making than reflections on
perceived bias in online communications.
The White House had no comment on why
top tech officials weren’t invited or on whether
the conference was deliberately scheduled to
overlap with the meeting in Idaho.
Among the conservative organizations that
are expected to participate in the White House
meeting: Turning Point USA; PragerU, short for
Prager University, which puts out short videos
with a conservative perspective on politics or
economics; and the Washington think tank
Heritage Foundation.
Trump and some supporters have long accused
Silicon Valley companies of being biased against
them. Accusations commonly leveled against
the platforms include anti-religious bias, a
tilt against those opposed to abortion and
censorship of conservative political views. While
some company executives may lean liberal,
they have long asserted that their products are
without political bias.
Representatives for Facebook, Google and
Twitter declined to comment specifically on
Thursday’s meeting. But the Internet Association,
the industry’s major trade group representing
Facebook, Google and dozens of other
companies, said the internet “offers the most
open and accessible form of communication
available today.”
Its members’ platforms “don’t have a political
ideology or political bias,” the group’s president
and CEO Michael Beckerman said in a statement.
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