Ted Cruz Slams Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in Heated Exchange Over Restricting Hunter Biden Stories: 'Who the Hell Elected You?'

Ted Cruz recently slammed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a heated exchange between the two, over the [...]

By Stephen Andrew

Ted Cruz recently slammed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a heated exchange between the two, over the social media site restricting stories about Hunter Biden. During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing over the company's decision to clock links to stories about the former Vice President's son, Cruz opened his time by saying, "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 added, "Why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?"

Dorsey replied, "We're not doing that. This is why I opened this hearing with calls for more transparency. We realized we need to earn trust more, we realized that more accountability is needed to show our intentions and to show the outcomes. So I hear the concerns and acknowledge them, but we want to fix it with more transparency." While Twitter did block the original New York Post story about Biden which unleashed the controversy, the company did amend its rules and regulations to allow it to be shared ahead of the Senate hearing.

Cruz still went in or Dorsey, however, calling Google, Facebook and Twitter pose "the single greatest threat to free speech in America." He dug in extra on Twitter, calling it's behavior "most egregious." Dorsey hit back in defense of the site, saying that the company wants to assure that "more voices on the platform are possible." He added, "We see a lot of abuse and harassment, which ends up silencing people and having them leave from the platform."

Cruz — who has two Twitter accounts, a personal one and one for his Senate position — has a long-standing feud with the site and its founder, frequently accusing them of censoring conservative content. Following a 2019 announcement that Twitter would ban all political ads, Cruz wrote an op-ed for The Hill wherein he openly criticized the decision. "It should come as no surprise that leftist politicians and media influencers praised Dorsey's announcement, urging Facebook and Google to follow suit and jump on board the censorship train by banning political ads as well," he wrote.

"Doing so would be profoundly harmful," Cruz added, citing reasons such as that the move "only stands to benefit two groups: incumbent politicians and the mainstream media." His second reason was that "Twitter's ban only further empowers Silicon Valley billionaires, who already have a stronghold on defining what is truthful or acceptable speech, to now define what is and what is not 'political.'" He added, "It's up to them to determine where to draw the line – and they won't stop here. Banning ads is just the beginning."

0comments
Start the Conversation

of