WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump has said it is "very dangerous" for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to silence voices on their services.
His comments in an interview with Reuters come as the social media industry faces mounting scrutiny from Congress to police foreign propaganda.
Mr Trump has made his Twitter account - with more than 53 million followers - an integral and controversial part of his presidency, using it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics.
He had criticised the social media industry last Saturday, claiming without evidence in a series of tweets that unnamed companies were "totally discriminating against Republican/conservative voices".
Those tweets followed actions taken by Apple, Alphabet's YouTube and Facebook to remove some content posted by Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Mr Jones' own Twitter account was temporarily suspended last Wednesday.
"I won't mention names but when they take certain people off Twitter or Facebook and they're making that decision, that is really a dangerous thing because that could be you tomorrow," said Mr Trump on Monday.
Mr Trump had appeared on a show produced by Infowars, hosted by Mr Jones, in December 2015 while campaigning for the White House.
In removing Mr Jones' content, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook each pointed to specific user agreement violations.
For example, Facebook removed several pages associated with Infowars after determining that they violated policies concerning hate speech and bullying.
Twitter and Facebook declined to comment on Mr Trump's statement. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
REUTERS
