ted cruz twitter

Ted Cruz grills Twitter CEO on censorship: 'Who the hell elected YOU!?'

i want to focus my questioning on mr,dorsey,and on twitter because of the three,players before us i think twitter's,conduct has by far,been the most egregious,mr dorsey does twitter have the ability,to influence elections no,you don't believe twitter has any,ability to influence elections,no we are one part of a spectrum of,communication challenges that people,have,so you're testifying to this committee,right now that that twitter when it,silences people when it censors people,when it blocks political speech,that has no impact on elections people,people have choice of other,communication channels with which,not if they don't hear information if,you don't think you have the power to,influence,elections why do you block anything,uh well we have policies that are,focused on making sure that more voices,on the platform are possible,we see a lot of abuse and harassment,which ends up silencing people and,helping them leave from the platform,all right mr dorsey i find your opening,questions your opening answers,absurd on their face let's talk about,the last two weeks in particular,as you know i have long been concerned,about twitter's pattern,of censoring and silencing individual,americans with whom,twitter disagrees but two weeks ago,twitter and to a lesser extent facebook,crossed a threshold that is fundamental,in our country two weeks ago twitter,made the unilateral decision,to censor the new york post in a series,of two blockbuster articles,both alleging evidence of corruption,against joe biden the first concerning,ukraine,the second concerning communist china,and twitter made the decision number one,to prevent users any user,from sharing those stories and number,two you went,even further and blocked the new york,post from sharing,on twitter its own reporting,why did twitter make the decision to,censor the new york post,uh we had a hack materials policy,um when's that policy adopted uh,in 2018 i believe in 2018 go ahead what,was,what was the policy so the policy is,around,um limiting the spread of materials,that are hacked we didn't want twitter,to be a distributor for hack materials,we found that the newer post because,it showed the direct materials,screenshots,of the direct materials and it was,unclear how those were attained,that it felt that it fell under this,policy now,so in your view if it's unclear the,source of a document in this,instance the new york post documented,what it said the source was which it,said it was a,a laptop owned by hunter biden that had,been turned into a,repair store so they weren't hiding what,they claimed to be the source,is it your position that twitter when,you can't tell the source blocks,blocks press stories no not at all,um we our team made a fast decision,uh the enforcement action however of,blocking urls,both in tweets and uh in dm,in direct messages we believe was,incorrect and we changed it,today the new york post is still blocked,from tweeting,two weeks later yes they have to log,into their account which they can do,at this minute delete the original tweet,which fell,under our original enforcement actions,and they can tweet the exact same,material from the exact same article and,it would go through,so mr dorsey your ability is you have,the power to force,a media out and let's be clear the new,york post isn't just some random guy,tweeting the new york post has the,fourth highest circulation of any,newspaper in america the new york post,is over,200 years old the new york post was,founded by alexander hamilton,and your position is that that you can,sit in silicon valley and demand of the,media,that you can tell them what stories they,can publish and you can tell the,american people what reporting they can,hear is that right,no this was this was a you know every,person,every account uh every uh organization,that signs up to twitter,agrees to terms of service in terms of,service so media,lets us genuflect and obey your dictates,if they wish to be able to communicate,with readers is that right,no not at all we you know we we,recognized an error,in this policy and specifically the,enforcement you're still blocking their,posts,you're still blocking their posts right,now today you're blocking their posts,we're not blocking the post anyone can,tweet,can the new york post uh post on their,on their twitter account,if they go into their account no is your,answer to that no,unless they reflect and agree with your,dictates let me ask you something,you claimed it was because of a hacked,materials uh,policy i find that facially,highly dubious and clearly employed in,in a deeply partial way did twitter,block the distribution of the new york,times,story a few weeks ago that purported to,be based on copies,of president trump's tax returns we,didn't find that,a violation of our terms of service and,this policy in particular,because there's reporting about the,material it wasn't,distributing the material okay well,that's actually not true that they,posted what they purported to be,original

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