A White House intiative to report political bias by social media companies is facing backlash from Democrats. | Krill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images technology Democrats, watchdog groups cry foul on Trump’s social media 'bias' tipline

The White House’s invitation for Americans to report political bias by social media companies drew more blowback Thursday from Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups, who said it raises serious concerns about online privacy, data security and government ethics.

“I think it raises questions related to the abuse of power,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “If it’s not authoritarian, it’s the first or second cousin of authoritarianism.”


Republican lawmakers cheered the move, however. “I think it is positive to be combating bias and censorship from big tech,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told POLITICO on Thursday, a month after convening a hearing on alleged discrimination against conservatives online.

But the details of President Donald Trump’s new effort continued to raise more questions than the White House was answering.

The White House’s official Twitter account unveiled the campaign on Wednesday, asking people to “share” their stories with Trump through an online questionnaire if they “suspect political bias” in enforcement actions taken against them by companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter. The form asks the user to submit a myriad of personal information, including the individual's full name, citizenship status, contact information, social media accounts, email address and more.

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One group said people who fill out the form may be giving the White House even more personal information than they realize.

In a Thursday letter to Trump, the Electronic Privacy Information Center urged the White House to immediately suspend its data collection over privacy concerns, including the White House's decision to host the form on Typeform, a third-party site based in Spain. Typeform can harvest identifying information from respondents including their IP addresses, EPIC says, linking that potential vulnerability to broader concerns.

“The White House seeks to collect detailed sensitive personal information, yet there is no indication that privacy interests were considered … we believe that this data collection is unlawful, unconstitutional, and itself a violation of the First Amendment,” EPIC President Marc Rotenberg and other group leaders wrote.

The group's comments echo those from a number of consumer advocates and ethics watchdog groups, who say the White House’s move to collect information for no clearly stated purpose should cause alarm for anyone planning to air their anti-tech grievances through the form.

“It's troubling to see people being asked to state their citizen status, provide their emails and give links to their social media accounts in order to report instances of bias, and raises questions about how that information may be used and who the government really wants to hear from,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The White House has repeatedly responded to POLITICO's queries on what it plans to do with the information with the statement that the administration simply “wants to hear from all Americans — regardless of their political leanings — if they have been impacted by bias on social media platforms.”

Whether the data collection is in fact illegal may be a matter for the courts to settle. It's ambiguous if certain privacy laws dealing with federal agencies' collection, maintenance and use of individuals’ personal information apply to the White House, though courts have long held that it's broadly exempt from one such law, the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.

But “that shouldn't be cause for anyone to rest easier,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“People should be nervous that the government is inappropriately collecting and storing information it does not need or have a right to, for purposes unknown,” he told POLITICO.

The dustup comes as online giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google face persistent allegations of political bias from high-profile Republicans, including Trump, who claim they stifle conservative speech on their platforms. Those claims have been widely disputed by tech companies and Democrats alike, who maintain there is no evidence companies systematically suppress content posted by conservatives.

That schism was on full display on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Democrats ripped the campaign as inappropriate, with Schatz calling it "deeply creepy" and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) saying it "sounds like a political stunt." Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), dismissing the "bad-faith charge of bias," said in a statement, "I’ve long warned that asking the government to police free speech would have dangerous consequences. It flies in the face of the Constitution."

Republican lawmakers were much more positive.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a prominent GOP tech critic who has accused firms of stifling conservative content, called it “a positive step.” Asked whether the White House collecting personal information in such a manner should cause concern, Hawley likened it to routine constituency outreach conducted by all congressional offices.

“It doesn’t seem to me to be much different than — we’ve got forms in our office where if you have a complaint or whatever, tell us,” he told reporters.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to clarify information about privacy laws that may apply to the White House's data collection.