Cruz accused Dorsey and Twitter of “abusing their corporate power” to censor the New York Post’s reporting on purported Hunter Biden emails that detail lucrative deals involving China’s largest private energy company. Dorsey on Wednesday night apologized after another NY Post report about emails that allege Hunter Biden introduced Vice President Joe Biden to a Ukrainian businessman was locked.
Both Cruz and Graham said they aren’t sure whether the NY Post’s reporting “is true,” but they stressed that it is about censorship.
Graham pointed out that discredited information from a dossier compiled by former UK spy Christopher Steele was not blocked by Twitter. Meanwhile, regarding the allegations that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia, “nobody blocked that,” he said.
Social media firms, he argued, “have a dominance in our lives … they’re publishers” akin to newspapers or television broadcasters. But Twitter’s recent actions “crystalizes the problem” of censorship ” better than anything for the American people,” he said.
Conservatives, including President Trump, have said that big tech companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook have engaged in censorship of their viewpoints, while simultaneously allowing far-left viewpoints to flourish with impunity.
“The power behind these platforms” has been “taken to a level that is truly dangerous,” Graham said, stressing to Democratic-leaning individuals: “It could be you tomorrow.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) went further, saying Twitter’s “attempt to rig the election by monopolies is unprecedented in American history.”
Twitter has not responded to a request for comment, and Dorsey has not made a public statement about the matter.
Dorsey on Wednesday, in a rare statement, apologized after the NY Post said its account was locked.
On Thursday, Trump reelection campaign officials said Twitter locked its main account, Team Trump, for allegedly violating its rules after posting about Joe Biden.
“Your account has been locked,” the Twitter message said. “What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: Violating our rules against posting private information.”
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said: “This is election interference, plain and simple. For Twitter to lock the main account of the campaign of the President of the United States is a breathtaking level of political meddling and nothing short of an attempt to rig the election.”
From The Epoch Times
