Media Matters President Angelo Carusone released the following statement after the Justice Department’s “listening session” with state attorneys general concerning tech companies:

Today’s so-called listening session was nothing more than another attempt for the Trump administration to game the refs so that they can continue to cheat social media platforms the way the Trump campaign did in 2016.

In 2016, right-wing efforts to game the refs at Facebook greatly contributed to amplification of fake news. Baseless cries of bias no doubt contributed to Twitter’s inconsistent enforcement of its terms of service and response to its climate of harassment.

If the Trump administration wanted to hold tech companies to account they could pressure them to better protect Americans from foreign interference, misinformation, and hate speech. Instead, they’ve chosen to focus on claims of supposed bias against conservatives that have no basis in fact. Jeff Sessions should stop wasting taxpayer resources for nefarious and political reasons.