Sen. Cruz: It Is Terrifying That a Handful of Silicon Valley Billionaires Have the Ability to Censor, Deceive, and Manipulate Votes

HOUSTON, Texas - Amidst Congressional Democrats' attempts to undo the results of the 2016 election, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Subcommittee on The Constitution, on Sunday appeared on Fox News' ‘Sunday Morning Futures' with Maria Bartiromo where he discussed his ongoing concerns about Big Tech's unchecked influence in past elections, and what that means for 2020 and beyond.

Specifically, Sen. Cruz discussed testimony from respected academic Dr. Robert Epstein, who testified in July of last year "that Google's biased search results swung a minimum of 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016."

Dr. Epstein went on to say that, "in 2020 if all these companies are supporting the same candidate, there are 15 million votes on the line that can be shifted without people's knowledge, and without leaving a paper trail for authorities to trace."

On ‘Sunday Morning Futures' Sen. Cruz said:

"So I'm very worried. That testimony that you just showed is Dr. Robert Epstein, who is a very respected academic. He is a psychologist - used to be editor of Psychology Today. He did an empirical study on Google in 2016 and on the search results that came back. And he was astonished by the results. He found that based on manipulated search outcomes, biased search outcomes, that Google in 2016 shifted 2.6 million votes towards Hillary Clinton.

He continued:

"Now here is the interesting thing, Maria. Dr. Epstein is not a Republican. He is a liberal Democrat. He voted for Hillary Clinton. So politically, he was happy to see more votes for Hillary but he was horrified to see Big Tech have that kind of power. And he went on to testify what you just played, which is if they do the same thing in 2020, which all indications are that they are going to, they could shift up to 15 million votes. It is terrifying that a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires, that now control over $5 trillion of the American economy, have no accountability and the ability to censor, to deceive, and to manipulate votes. And I think that's a threat to our democracy we need to take very seriously."

The Dallas Morning News editorial board recently called Sen. Cruz ‘clear-eyed about the power American law has given big tech over the national discourse and how distorting that impact has been.' In the Senate, Sen. Cruz is leading the fight to hold Big Tech accountable to the American people for its pattern of political bias and censorship. Sen. Cruz has:

• Sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, urging him to remove language in U.S. trade agreements similar to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides "near -blanket legal immunity" to technology companies.
• Chaired multiple hearings with representatives from Twitter, Facebook, and Google, where he raised his concerns about the technology companies engaging in a disturbing pattern of political censorship.
• Heard testimony from Dennis Prager of PragerU, whose videos are routinely censored on YouTube, and Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist who testified that Google's biased search results swung a minimum of 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
• Wrote an op-ed in The Hill in response to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's announcement last week banning all political ads from the platform, calling the move "profoundly harmful."

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