Last Updated on October 15, 2020
In the aftermath of a blitz of account lockdowns and post removals related to an article alleging Hunter Biden’s facilitation of collusion between Ukrainian operatives and his then-vice president father, members of the Senate are issuing subpoenas for to question social media CEOs over charges of politically motivated censorship.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), declared that the Senate Judiciary Committee would be subpoenaing the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook to testify about the recent manipulation and censorship of information detrimental to Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, both Twitter and Facebook pro-actively acted to interrupt and cease the widespread dissemination and distribution of a damning New York Post story that allegedly shows emails from Hunter Biden that definitively link his father to his Ukraine business dealings while Joe Biden served as vice president.
READ MORE: New York Post Publishes Photo Of Hunter Biden Sleeping With Crack Pipe In His Mouth
Twitter has blocked any dissemination of links of material from The Post story and went so far as to have locked down the account of both the White House Press Secretary and the Trump campaign for tweeting links and video on Joe Biden that cites the story.
“This is censorship. This is not the American way.”@PressSec says she is permanently banned from @Twitter unless she deletes a report about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.
https://t.co/fyamBCcrRA— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 15, 2020
“This is election interference and we’re 19 days out from an election,” Cruz said. “It has no precedent in the history of democracy. The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on.”
Jack Dorsey must “to come before this committee and the American people and explain why Twitter is abusing their corporate power to silence the press and cover up allegations of corruption,” added Cruz.
Sen. @tedcruz: "Twitter is actively blocking, right now this instant, stories from the New York Post…on Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee, the full committee, will be voting on subpoenas to subpoena @Jack Dorsey to come before our committee." pic.twitter.com/lfpEcH8xeQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 15, 2020
The Senators spotlighted the prejudicially bias information management of stories and information as it relates to specific political parties and ideology. They exampled that the social media companies did nothing to suppress the dissemination or distribution on the unsubstantiated Steele dossier, information that was not only fabricated but politically damaging to President Trump, or to flag reporting on Russia collusion.
Alluding to the unregulated power the tech giants wield, how their editorial decisions on content can influence a voter’s opinion of a candidate, and how these social media behemoths are unaccountable for their partisan decisions, Sen. Graham stated, “What we’re going to do is we’re going to finally have an accounting that’s long overdue. The power behind these platforms have been taken to a level that truly is dangerous.”
