The hearings on social media censorship earlier this week saw Republican Senators, and some Democrat Senators, taking issue with Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg over their organizations’ propensity to employ politically biased censorship. But some on the committee believe they don’t go far enough.
While Republican Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX, and Ron Johnson (R-WI), took Dorsey and Zuckerberg to task, Democrats on the committee praised the Silicon Valley billionaires for silencing “hate speech” in America. And at least three made it quite clear they expected more of it.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), said social media and big tech companies need to take more action, not less, suggesting that all articles questioning universal masking be removed completely from the internet. She exampled a tweet by the President citing data that proves
99 percent of people recover from COVID. She was outraged that he hadn’t been censored.
Radically left Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the “issue is they’re leaving too many posts up!” Markey openly stated that people who don’t agree with Democrats – read: Progressives – should be silenced.
Sen. Ed Markey at tech hearing says: "The issue is not that the companies before us today is that they're taking too many posts down. The issue is that they're leaving too many dangerous posts up." https://t.co/4au67uIp3P pic.twitter.com/HWRPRn2hHA
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) October 28, 2020
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said the hearings were politically motivated in their proximity to the election, but said the conversation was necessary so that “we continue to make sure that hate speech and misinformation is taken down from the web.”
For their parts, Dorsey and Zuckerberg executed an incredible indifference while feigning ignorance to some of the most egregious points being made by those on the committee who had the courage to defend free speech and the First Amendment.
Cruz was, perhaps, the most direct, saying, “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 do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?”
Here is the full back and forth between @tedcruz and @jack.
Ted Cruz absolutely BODIED him. pic.twitter.com/GLqV3fSoRZ
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) October 28, 2020
