The White House has 16 questions about your experiences with ‘tech bias’. We have 16 questions for them

The Trump administration launched a web survey on Wednesday soliciting examples of alleged “tech bias” on social media.

“SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies,” the survey states. “No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump.”

The survey, which was created with the online form-building tool Typeform, asks users to provide their names, contact information, social media accounts, and screenshots of interactions with social media platforms. Only US citizens and permanent residents are asked to complete the survey’s 16 questions, which specifically cite Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter as platforms of concern.

The White House (@WhiteHouse) The Trump Administration is fighting for free speech online.



No matter your views, if you suspect political bias has caused you to be censored or silenced online, we want to hear about it! https://t.co/9lc0cqUhuf pic.twitter.com/J8ICbx42dz

The form’s release, via the official White House Twitter account, was cheered by members of the far right media ecosystem, which has suffered from a number of high-profile bannings of accounts over violations of policies banning hate speech and white nationalism. Others immediately began trolling the not-particularly-sophisticated form by uploading false or satirical reports.

Trump's Twitter tantrum: Google may be controlling, but it's not partisan Read more

While the web form indicates that the White House’s grudge against supposedly liberal Silicon Valley-based technology companies has reached new heights, it also marks a new low when it comes to doing things that make sense.

So, in response to the White House’s 16 questions, we have 16 of our own.

1. What is the White House planning to do with the names and contact information of people who complete this form?

2. What won’t the White House do with the names and contact information of people who complete this form?

3. How and where is the data from people completing this survey being stored?

4. Why does the White House only want responses from US citizens and permanent residents?

5. Does the White House know that the first amendment applies to non-citizens who are in the United States?

6. Why was this form built on Typeform, which is based in Barcelona?

7. Why not Survey Monkey?

8. Why not a Google Form?

9. Does the White House know that it could have set up a Google Form for free?

10. Is the White House familiar with section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects the right of internet platforms to make their own rules regarding user-generated content?

11. Does the White House know that the first amendment does not apply to censorship decisions made by private social media platforms?

12. If the White House receives absolute incontrovertible proof that private social media companies are biased against conservatives, what exactly does it plan to do about that?

13. Whose idea was this?

14. Is this part of a broader government strategy designed to achieve … something?

15. Did you see what that coconut water company tweeted?

16. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, did not immediately respond.