By Bonchie
Ted Cruz’s star has only risen since his defeat in the 2016 presidential primary. Where some figures like Marco Rubio have failed to differentiate themselves in the Trump era, Cruz has become an even more outspoken defender of conservative ideals in the Senate, as well as on social media.
Today, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, among other social media platform leaders, testified about the recent censorship of damning information surrounding Joe and Hunter Biden. Facebook throttled the story while Twitter outright banned the dissemination of links and screen caps of what the Post had reported. In fact, that ban was not lifted until today after Cruz caught Dorsey lying about the matter (see Jack Dorsey Lies to Ted Cruz in Senate Hearing on Twitter’s Election Interference, but Will the Senate Do Anything).
In a blistering exchange, Cruz laid into Dorsey, and the Twitter founder deserved every bit of it.
The Daily Wire provides some excerpts for those that can’t watch the full video.
Cruz began his line of questioning by hammering Dorsey for claiming, without evidence, that Twitter does not have the ability to influence elections. Cruz noted that Dorsey’s response was “absurd on its face.” “As you know, I have long been concerned about Twitter’s pattern of censoring and silencing individual Americans with whom Twitter disagrees,” Cruz said. “But two weeks ago, Twitter … crossed a threshold that is fundamental in our country. Two weeks 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.”
Things just got more heated from there, eventually leading Cruz to ask Dorsey “who the hell elected you?” in response.
Dorsey then falsely claimed during his testimony that Twitter was not still blocking reporting from the New York Post. “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 and why do you persist in behaving in a Democratic Super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?” Cruz asked. “We’re not doing that,” Dorsey claimed.
As streiff’s earlier article that I linked above shows, that was a blatant lie. Right after Dorsey made that assertion, people went to Twitter and the URL was still blocked to the Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop. It was only some time after it started to go viral that Dorsey had lied that Twitter finally unblocked the story. Even still, the Post’s Twitter account remains locked.
Cruz is fighting the battle that so many on the right won’t. Too many conservatives think it is somehow principled to allow giant monopolies to control speech just because they are private companies. In the end, Twitter enjoys government Section 230 protections. If the answer is the free market, then we should go full free market and strip them of their legal protections. But this silly “leave Twitter” alone narrative that ignores the context of the situation, allowing these social media companies to keep big government carve outs that benefit them financially while they censor speech is not a solution. It will only lead to more marginalization of right leaning thought.
We can either fight this fight to win, or we will lose and fade away. It’s that simple. Senators like Cruz and Josh Hawley understand that while others sit idly by. There are ways to handle this situation without compromising conservative values. What’s not conservative is giving social media special protections while excusing their blatantly partisan, un-American behavior in quashing free speech. Cruz understands that and deserves praise for taking Dorsey to task here.
(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)
Author: Bonchie