During a hearing, Republicans led by Sen. Ted Cruz continue to say big tech companies are stifling conservative speech even as experts say no evidence exists
Republicans led by Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday pilloried Facebook, Google and Twitter over allegations they censor conservative users … Tweets: @oneunderscore__ , @willsommer , @tonyromm , @natijomartinez , @mattmcgee , @issielapowsky , @robynelyse , @melissaryan , @willsommer , @issielapowsky , @issielapowsky , @issielapowsky , @issielapowsky , @issielapowsky , @danprimack , @ceciliakang , @tonyromm , @tonyromm , @issielapowsky , @issielapowsky , @danprimack , @broderick , @dmccabe , and @issielapowsky See also Mediagazer Tweets: Ben Collins / @oneunderscore__ : The second testimony from today's “tech censorship” hearing is from Robbie Parker. Parker lost his daughter in the Sandy Hook massacre, and had no one to contact at YouTube or Facebook as he was deluged with crisis actor conspiracies, including a memorial page setup for his kid. pic.twitter.com/MW9XzkUtxb Will Sommer / @willsommer : Twitter has a pretty good explanation for why “Unplanned” had its Twitter account banned—the person who created the account had previously been booted from Twitter for breaking the rules, so the new account was tagged as an attempt at ban evasion. We'll see if Ted Cruz buys it! Tony Romm / @tonyromm : UPDATE: As evidence of anti-conservative tech bias, Cruz said that Twitter had unfairly blocked/censored a tweet from SBA List about abortion featuring a quote from Mother Theresa. But at least one version of it, from 2017, appears online. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Natalie Martinez / @natijomartinez : sad to hear mother teresa has been shadowbanned pic.twitter.com/efuDM6wchq Matt McGee / @mattmcgee : FFS stop wasting your time and our money, and actually do something productive. http://twitter.com/... Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : At today's House hearing on hate crimes and white supremacy, the hatemongers got their way minority groups were pitted against each other, and the tech giants that have allowed this hate to fester got off scot free. http://www.wired.com/... Robyn Pennacchia / @robynelyse : Ted Cruz is currently holding a hearing in order to yell at Twitter for being mean to conservatives by making them adhere to the same rules as everyone else. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/ ... Melissa Ryan / @melissaryan : Ted Cruz wants to raise some campaign cash so he's holding another hearing about censorship of conservatives on social media that doesn't actually exist. It starts in 15 minutes. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/ ... Will Sommer / @willsommer : Ted Cruz is holding a hearing today to investigate why the Twitter account of an anti-abortion movie was briefly suspended. I'll be keeping an eye on it in case anything interesting happens. Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : Cruz challenges Monje Jr. to name a single Democrat who had their Twitter account suspended. Monje Jr. mentions a bunch of them who have run afoul of Twitter's policies. “These folks didn't put out a press release about it.” Monje Jr. says. Cruz cuts him off. Cool fact-finding. Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : Neil Potts of Facebook also testified before the House yesterday. Today's going to be tougher. Yesterday, the rest of the witnesses and the members of the House mostly picked each other off, letting the tech representatives skate through https://www.wired.com/... Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : Cruz says the committee will hold a separate hearing on Google, since they declined to provide someone of adequate seniority. Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : Twitter's Carlos Monje Jr. says data scientists studied accounts of House reps and Senators between Feb and March of this year, controlling for number of followers, and found that there's “no statistically significant difference” between views of Dem. and Rep. tweets. Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : “What makes the threat of political censorship so problematic is the lack of transparency. The invisibility. The ability for a handful of giant tech companies to decide if a particular speaker is dissuaded that he or she may speak and their words simply fade into the ether.” Cruz Dan Primack / @danprimack : Clever line from Twitter exec: “One in a million happens 500 times a day on Twitter... you can always find an example to fit a narrative.” Cecilia Kang / @ceciliakang : And Cruz bringing out the @Jack pullout quotes as proof bias. http://twitter.com/... Tony Romm / @tonyromm : Apparently Facebook is still working with now-former Sen. Kyl on this conservative review, per Potts testimony now, says he's interfacing with members. Hm. Tony Romm / @tonyromm : One of the most poignant moments so far is Blackburn's very clear swipe at Facebook. “At least here in the United States Senate, Mark Zuckerberg's pivot to privacy isn't fooling anybody” Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : Cruz asserts that tech companies have broken their promise to be neutral platforms, which is the bargain he says made Section 230 possible. A reminder that Section 230 actually encourages companies to moderate content https://www.wired.com/... pic.twitter.com/0UcENeL6sM Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : One thing Cruz is right about: Tech companies have not published the data that might put this debate to rest. That could be because the data wouldn't look great, given the imbalance between problematic content being shared by the right v. left. So we're left with anecdotes. Dan Primack / @danprimack : Ted Cruz: “By almost any measure, the giant tech cos today are larger & more powerful than Standard Oil or AT&T when they were broken up.” Ryan Broderick / @broderick : During the hearing yesterday on tech and the rise of white nationalism, a push went off on my phone saying a state of emergency had just been declared over a measles outbreak in New York City. Platforms like Facebook have already created problems that will last our whole lives. http://twitter.com/... David McCabe / @dmccabe : New: Google staffer Max Pappas will *not* be testifying at Ted Cruz's hearing tomorrow on “technological censorship.” The committee rejected him as a witness. A staffer says he wasn't senior enough — but Google says it offered best expert for the hearing. http://www.axios.com/... Issie Lapowsky / @issielapowsky : It could also piss off lots of people who already say that Facebook is censoring speech that isn't part of the mainstream. Like, you know, members of the US Senate who are holding a hearing on this very thing today https://www.wired.com/... See also Mediagazer Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next
Context & Ripple Effects
This hearing is the third act in a running congressional series: after the Senate session with Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey on foreign influence and Sundar Pichai's appearance over Google's China work in the December 2018 testimony, Republicans led by Ted Cruz pivot the forum to alleged anti-conservative censorship — a claim experts flatly say lacks evidence.
What makes it consequential is Twitter's own witness: Carlos Monje Jr. testified that internal data shows no statistically significant difference in visibility between Democratic and Republican members' tweets, putting platform data directly against the committee's premise.
First-order effects
- Facebook, Google, and Twitter policy executives — Neil Potts among them — are pulled into repeated testimony defending moderation practices they say are politically neutral, while the Judiciary Committee's rejection of Google staffer Max Pappas as a witness signals the panels are curated for the censorship narrative rather than open inquiry.
Second-order effects
- The unsupported-bias framing gives Senate Republicans a standing rationale to escalate process pressure, which materializes in the [[a:959027|Judiciary Committee subpoenaing Jack Dorsey over Twitter's blocking of a New York Post article]].
Third-order effects
- The hearings convert an evidence-free claim into legislative leverage: the DOJ's proposal to attach conditions to Section 230 protections shows the liability shield itself becoming the bargaining chip, with Wired noting subsequent hearings devolve into mischaracterizations of the law.
The trend: Congressional oversight of social platforms is shifting from fact-finding toward a pressure campaign that uses unproven censorship claims to justify conditioning Section 230.