Facebook was taking hits from the left and the right over the release Tuesday (Aug. 20) of the findings, to date, of a review of conservative concerns about a liberal bias in content choices on the social media site. 

The audit was conducted by a former Republican senator polling conservatives about their issues. But that didn't please one current Republican senator and harsh critic of social media. But neither did it please a group on the opposite side of the issue. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who is inarguably Big Tech's biggest Senate critic, is definitely concerned about potential anti-conservative bias by Big Tech, but he is no fan of the audit, which Facebook launched last year after CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled on the Hill over the bias issue. 

“Merely asking somebody to listen to conservatives’ concerns isn’t an ‘audit,’ it’s a smokescreen disguised as a solution," said Hawley. "Facebook should conduct an actual audit by giving a trusted third party access to its algorithm, its key documents, and its content moderation protocols. Then Facebook should release the results to the public.” Hawley spoke at a White House meeting of conservative bloggers, where he agreed that their voices were being discriminated against on social media. 

Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, agreed with Hawley that the audit missed the mark, but for different reasons. Gupta said the audit was "a make-believe solution in search of a phantom problem." 

"Rather than allowing baseless allegations of so-called anti-conservative bias to distract them, Facebook officials should focus on the civil and human rights problems and white supremacist propaganda overrunning its platform," said Gupta, adding that releasing a "face-saving" report (or in this case Facebook saving) just didn't cut it.  

The divide between Gupta and Hawley reflects the one between the two parties, where Republicans say conservative bias is a legitimate threat while Democrats call it a distraction from the issue of racist and nationalistic hate speech that they argue Republicans don't do enough to discourage, or in the case of the President, actively encourage.  

The conference has joined with over four dozen other civil rights groups to call on Big TEch to do more to reduce hate speech and other conduct that "endangers" marginalized communities.  

Such criticism notwithstanding, Facebook has signaled it will continue to "examine, and where necessary adjust, our own policies and practices in the future," conceding that "we will inevitably make some bad [content] calls, some of which may appear to strike harder at conservatives." 

The White House is drafting an Executive Order that would give the Federal Communications Commission oversight on what social media operators can allow on their websites, and increase the Federal Trade Commission's investigative powers and ability to sue offending companies. The proposal would significantly restrict protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Reports from CNN and Politico about the Executive Order draft emerged just as the White House hosted a Friday meeting of technology companies to explore online violent rhetoric and images. President Donald Trump signaled plans for such an effort to crackdown on liberal bias online during a "social media summit" (mostly for conservative "journalists and influencers") on July 11.

Related: Trump Looks to Enforce Fairness on Social Media 

CNN reported that it reviewed a summary of the proposed Executive Order, tentatively (and somewhat counter-intuitively) titled "Protecting Americans from Online Censorship." A White House official declined to discuss the draft. According to CNN, the summary claims that the White House has received more than 15,000 complaints of social media platforms censoring American political discourse.

The plan would give the FCC authority to identify social media sites that do not qualify for the 'good-faith immunity" of Section 230, according to CNN. The proposal also calls for the FCC to develop new regulations to clarify how and when social media websites can remove or suppress content.

The rules would affect platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Google and other technology firms that curate content on their sites. The proposal envisions that the FTC would create a "public complaint docket" and would work with the FCC to develop a report on how tech firms curate their platforms and whether they do so in a neutral way, according to CNN's coverage.

Any company with a user base of at least one-eighth of the U.S. population would be subject to scrutiny, according to the draft.

Politico quoted an unnamed White House official as explaining that, “If the Internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the President wants some fairness in the system.”

Analysts have pointed out that agencies will not be able to draft rules or enforce objectives without Congressional action.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who wrote Section 230, characterized the Trump plan as "horrible" and told CNN that neither the FCC nor the FTC appear eager "to carry it out."

Sources told Washington reporters that the Executive Order has been in development for a considerable period and is subject to change; they also acknowledged that there is no timetable for issuing the Executive Order. Neither the FTC nor FCC had any immediate comment on the proposal.