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U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw slammed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey after a Senate Commerce Committee hearing which also made him realize something terrifying about the Democratic Party.
The Texas Republican shared his “biggest take away” after hearing testimony from Dorsey, whom he slammed as a “partisan” and a “hypocrite,” as well as Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In a tweet following the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, Crenshaw also pointed out an observation about Democrats that he said “should terrify Americans.”
Crenshaw shared his observation about Dorsey without much more detail in his tweet. The Twitter chief was confronted by Republicans over his company’s bias against conservatives and President Donald Trump as well as recent attempts to censor and control free speech on the platform.
But after hours of lawmakers grilling the Big Tech CEO’s, Crenshaw realized “there are no liberals left in the Democrat Party,” tweeting that not one Democrat senator “defended free speech or freedom of the press today.”
“This should terrify Americans,” he added.
Biggest take away from the big tech hearings:
1) Jack Dorsey is a partisan and a hypocrite.
2) There are no liberals left in the Democrat Party. Not a single Democrat Senator defended free speech or freedom of the press today.
This should terrify Americans.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) October 28, 2020
Democrats failed to hold the tech giants accountable for blatant censorship, staying silent as their Republican colleagues grilled the billionaire CEO’s over suppressing the president’s comments, other conservatives and even the Twitter fiasco as the platform blocked a New York Post article that was critical of the Biden family.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz called the hearing a “sham” while Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said it was being held on a “false narrative,” actually suggesting — like many of her Democratic colleagues — that the tech companies need to take more actions to control information being disseminated.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey claimed that GOP efforts “feed a false narrative about anti-conservative bias and to intimidate big tech so it will stand idly by” as the election draws near.
“The issue today is not that the companies are taking too many posts down,” he added. “The issue today is that companies are leaving too many posts up.”
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
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell thought it was important to discuss “how we continue to make sure that hate speech and misinformation is taken down from the web,” though she criticized the timing of the hearing.
Meanwhile, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth declared that “it makes my blood boil and also breaks my heart a little to watch my Republicans colleagues just days before the election sink down to the levels of Donald Trump.” She slammed Senate Republicans for “crying censorship” and made the tech chiefs personally commit to actively remove disinformation from their platforms.
Duckworth closes by having Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Pichai pledge to resist right-wing and GOP bullying: “Facts still exist, facts still matter, facts save lives, and there’s no both sides when one side has chosen to reject truth and embrace poisonous false information.”
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) October 28, 2020
“I want to know if you have a plan,” Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the company chiefs.
“If the president uses your platforms to, say on the day of the election, that there is rigging or fraud without any basis in evidence or attempts to say that the election is over and the counting of votes must stop…[do you have a] plan, yes or no?” the Connecticut Democrat pressed.
In a recent conference call with reporters, Sen. Tom Cotton warned that the ongoing blatant activities by the social media companies would get lawmakers to look again at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
“For all of those tech oligarchs who think they can get away with this, I will simply say that winter is coming. They have enjoyed total immunity,” Cotton said. “That is going to change soon because the millions of Americans who believe in God and believe in national sovereignty and believe in the Constitution will not tolerate these monopolists continuing to dictate the flow of information in this country.”
The Justice Department has apparently followed up.
“The Department of Justice is encouraged by the emerging consensus in each branch of government and many parts of the private sector that the time has come to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote in a letter to congressional leaders this week.
“Today’s large online platforms hold tremendous power over the information and views available to the American people,” he added. “It is therefore critical that they be honest and transparent with users about how they use that power.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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