Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (video screenshot)
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday skewered Twitter and its chief, Jack Dorsey, for a series of decisions that effectively allowed negative reporting about President Trump on its editorial platform but censored negative reporting about Joe Biden.
"Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear? And why insist on behaving as a Democrat superpac," Cruz said.
Dorsey, along with the chiefs of other Big Tech social media companies, appeared before the Senate via web links under subpoena after the censorship controversy erupted.
It was when Twitter ordered the New York Post, a newspaper with the fourth-large circulation in the country, to withdraw its reporting on the Biden family's alleged inappropriate activities. It ordered the newspaper to take down its posting before it would be allowed access to its social media account.
Twitter still this week is demanding that posting be taken down before full access to the Post account is restored.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019 (screenshot)
The fight has highlighted complaints going back now years that the social media platforms, which now are protected from certain liabilities because they are simply a "platform," and not a content "publisher," are biased, and multiple arguments they should lose that protection because they are, in effect, "editing" and "controlling" the content.
See the senator's questions:
Cruz asked Dorsey, Twitter's chief, if his company can influence elections, and Dorsey denied it.
He claimed his company was just part of a "spectrum of resources."
Cruz openly challenged him, contending that Twitter's decision to block "political speech" does, in fact, affect elections.
When Dorsey said people have "choices" about their channels, Cruz responded, "Not if they don't hear information."
Cruz said the latest episode of censorship, which in the past repeatedly has targeted conservative thought and expression, is alarming.
The company crossed a "threshold" when it blocked speech by the Post "alleging corruption against Joe Biden," even though it had previously allowed without even comment reporting that was negative toward President Trump.
Those reports about Trump, in fact, were based on documents, tax information, that federal law makes it illegal to share or post without the subject's permission, he said.
Dorsey claimed the accusations against Biden were blocked because they were "hacked materials," but Cruz pointed out the source of the material, a laptop apparently abandoned by Hunter Biden, was openly described and involved no incident of "hacking.'
Dorsey admitted the original blocking was an error, and his policy was changed, but also admitted the Post still has been ordered to take down its original reporting.
The hearing also included the chiefs of Facebook and Google to answer "on their electioneering and censorship of conservative content," explained the Gateway Pundit.
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