Sen. Cruz to Twitter: You Are Complicit in Biased Political Censorship
Demands answers from Twitter on their biased censorship of conservatives
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today participated in a hearing focused on Big Tech's accountability for "Mass Violence, Extremism, and Digital Responsibility," featuring witnesses from Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
At the hearing, Sen. Cruz asked Twitter to explain its recent decisions to censor content from conservative politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and pro-life groups.
"Many Americans, including myself, have a longstanding concern that when Big Tech says it's combating extremism that is often a shield for advancing political censorship," Sen. Cruz said. "Recently, Twitter extended its pattern of censorship to the level that it took down the Twitter account of the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. That I found a pretty remarkable thing for Twitter to do, and it did so because that account, as I understand it, had sent out a video of angry protesters outside of Sen. McConnell's house. [...] Senate Majority Leader sent out those threats of violence and found, rather remarkably, his own Twitter account taken down. How does Twitter explain that?"
As a recent Pew study found, a majority of Americans believe tech companies have "too much power and influence" and "intentionally censor political viewpoints they find objectionable." That's why, on both the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and as chairman of the Senate Judiciary's Subcommittee on The Constitution, Sen. Cruz has been leading efforts to hold Big Tech accountable to the American people and stop political censorship. As he said at another recent hearing with Google, "more and more Americans are demanding accountability from Big Tech for that massive power."
Watch Sen. Cruz's full line of questioning at today's hearing here.
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