Republican congressman Matt Gaetz is contemplating filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after being allegedly "shadow banned" by Twitter, The Daily Caller News Foundation said on Wednesday.
"The evidence is piling up that I am being treated differently on Twitter than people on the political Left and I don't like that because I enjoy the Twitter platform, I enjoy the engagement, I enjoy the candor," Gaetz said, as quoted by The DCNF.
Gaetz stressed that his political opponents having "better access" to Twitter than him is equivalent to a private company giving them access to time on TV. "So I believe that Twitter may have illegally donated to the campaigns of my opponents by prejudicing against my content," he added.
READ MORE: Twitter Accounts of Prominent US Republican Leaders ‘Shadow Banned’
His growing Twitter account lost momentum after the platform changed its algorithm due to harassment concerns in mid-May, the Florida congressman said, citing a 75 percent growth cut.
Twitter representatives "keep calling and emailing my office saying that they're not shadow-banning me, so I guess I can either believe them or my lying eyes," Gaetz said.
He was one of several prominent Republican Party members, including a party chair, several congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.'s spokesperson, whose accounts Twitter allegedly suppressed by making it harder to find them in the site's search function, claims a Vice News report released on Wednesday.
The investigation has drawn the attention of the US president, an active Twitter user, who pledged to look into what he called the platform's "discriminatory and illegal practice."
Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 26 июля 2018 г.
Twitter's press office has yet to comment on multiple requests from The Daily Carrier.
