U.S. Senate Questions Big Tech Censorship Amid Biden Scandal
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – The U.S. Senate has launched an investigation into censorship by tech giants Twitter, Facebook, and Google amid presidential election campaigns.
Wednesday’s hearing followed Twitter and Facebook’s decision to suppress a story by the New York Post newspaper on alleged shady business dealings of presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The Post reported last week it had obtained emails suggesting Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a Ukrainian adviser of Burisma Holdings in 2015.
Hunter Biden’s efforts were to boost his pay at the Ukrainian natural gas giant where he joined the board, despite his zero experience in the energy sector, suggested the story.
The documents, which President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani gave to the paper, were reportedly recovered from a laptop computer dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019.
TURBULENT HEARING
During Wednesday’s turbulent Senate hearing, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the New York Post Twitter account would remain locked until it deletes the original tweet featuring its Hunter Biden story.
That prompted an angry response from Republican Senator Ted Cruz. “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?” he shouted.
“Why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?”
Dorsey said it was a mistake that had been fixed, but The Post account remained locked, even as he spoke.
“Can the New York Post post on their Twitter account?” Cruz wondered.
“If they go into their account . . .” answered Dorsey, before Cruz cut him off. “No, is your answer to that,” fumed Cruz, “unless they genuflect and agree with your dictates.”
TRUMP CENSORED
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn claimed that this wasn’t an isolated incident.
She claimed Twitter had “censored” President Trump 65 times and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden zero. “There is a pattern of subjective manipulation of information.”
CEOs of Twitter and Facebook, which also moved to suppress The Post’s reporting, denied that they were biased toward conservative or Christian views. Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted they had no evidence The New York Post story was wrong.
However, they suggested their companies refuse to publish “hacked materials.” Borth men did not specify why stories on Trump’s tax returns weren’t filtered for similar reasons.
“Some folks think the paper should’ve just caved immediately and deleted the story. Yet the problem isn’t The Post’s failure to squelch stories — it’s Big Tech’s heavy-handed shakedown,” The Post wrote on a commentary.
BROADER CONCERNS
It comes amid broader Republican concerns about alleged liberal, pro-Biden bias within the three tech giants, though all denied these charges on Wednesday.
The Post suggested in its commentary that social media companies are happily complying with the liberal narrative.
Twitter CEO Dorsey, it said, “sounded like every mob enforcer and shakedown artist in history: Nice paper you got there, New York Post. Shame, should something happen to it.”
However, “He knows full well media outlets depend on social media, and Google search algorithms, to help readers access our reporting.”
Wednesday’s debate was just the start of what promises to be a turbulent season on Silicon Valley’s alleged threats to a healthy democracy.
TOUGHER LEGISLATION?
After Twitter put fact-checking labels on Trump’s tweets for the first time in May, the president signed an executive order seeking new regulatory oversight of tech firms’ content moderation decisions.
He backed legislation to scrap or weaken Section 230 – a federal law largely exempting online platforms from legal liability for the material their users Post.
Trump has again demanded that the law be repealed after Facebook and Twitter limited the distribution of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story.
Biden, who has clashed with Facebook over its hands-off stance to politicians’ ads and speech, said earlier this year he too wants to revoke Section 230. Commentators note that he was the only Democratic presidential candidate to call for its repeal.
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