OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
According to Fox News, Senators Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley called on the top executives of Twitter and Facebook to testify, claiming that the networks have been censoring reporting critical of Democrats.
“This is election interference and we’re 19 days out from an election,” Cruz, R-Texas, said. “It has no precedent in the history of democracy. The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on.”
“We’re going to finally have an accounting that’s long overdue,” Graham, R-S.C., said.
“The power behind these platforms have been taken to a level that truly is dangerous,” the Judiciary Committee chairman added.
NEW — U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has formally requested @Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and @Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism in a coming hearing titled "Digital Platforms and Election Interference.” pic.twitter.com/VlXBo17bX0
— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) October 15, 2020
Biden campaign National Press Secretary @JTOBrown responds to Twitter’s decision to block a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
“Twitter’s response to the actual article itself makes clear that these purported allegations are false.” #CheddarLive pic.twitter.com/PdPEkMZ85p
— Cheddar🧀 (@cheddar) October 15, 2020
The company’s 2018 policy prohibits the distribution of content “obtained without authorization.” Twitter doesn’t want to incentivize hacking or circulating “possibly illegally obtained materials.”
“Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren’t a violation of this policy,” Twitter said. “Our policy only covers links to or images of hacked material themselves.”
From Fox News:
Republicans accused the social media platforms of censorship and implied the tech giants were in cahoots with the Biden campaign to suppress a negative story.
They also made a case for hypocrisy, saying Twitter did nothing to censor reporting on the Steele dossier that was damaging to President Trump or to flag reporting on Russia collusion allegations. The Republicans pointed to the power the tech giants wield and how their decisions on content can influence voters’ understanding of the candidates.
Twitter took major steps to stop the spread of the story, including locking the New York Post’s Twitter account Wednesday and suspending the official account of the Trump campaign for tweeting out a video on Joe Biden that cites the story.
