Former Texas Rep. Ron Paul said Wednesday the government should not be getting involved in regulating Facebook, after a report surfaced this week that employees at the social media company downplayed or censored news reports from conservative outlets on its feed of trending stories.

“I would be certainly opposed, you’re correct, at the government — the Congress or anybody else — trying to restrain Facebook,” Mr. Paul, a former presidential candidate, said on Fox Business Network.

“Getting out information, if that is true it’s good to know that,” he said. “But it’s sort of like realizing The New York Times is a biased newspaper [and] take it into consideration, but you don’t regulate those individuals that do [this].”

Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, demanded answers on Tuesday from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after Gizmodo had reported Facebook employees suppressed conservative news on the site.

Facebook has said there’s no evidence the allegations are true.

“To write a letter, I have no idea what he said, but they should not get involved in regulating Facebook,” Mr. Paul said.

“I think Facebook actually started all this because Silicon Valley is part of the deep state. They do want regulations — they want exemptions from lawsuits,” he said. “They come and they lobby Congress to get protection … and also participate in the government spying on us, so I think that’s really a big problem.”

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