Jack Dorsey: Twitter Doesn’t Influence Elections, Admits No Policy Against Holocaust Denial
Ted Cruz: “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?”
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Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey what happens if someone on the platform denies the Holocaust ever happened.
Dorsey admitted the company does not “have a policy against that type of misleading information.”
Then Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tore into Dorsey for blocking The New York Post over Hunter Biden’s laptop reports
Cruz: ‘Who the Hell Elected You?’
Here is the full back and forth between @tedcruz and @jack.
Ted Cruz absolutely BODIED him. pic.twitter.com/GLqV3fSoRZ
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) October 28, 2020
Cruz ripped into Dorsey:
“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?” thundered the Texas Republican at the social-media mogul. “Why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?”
The conversation turned to Twitter blocking The New York Post‘s account and censoring its bombshell reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop even though the information did not come from a hack.
“Why did Twitter make the decision to censor the New York Post?” he asked.
Replied Dorsey, “We have a hacked materials policy … limiting the spread of materials that are hacked. We didn’t want Twitter to be a distributor of hacked materials. We found that the New York Post, because it showed the direct materials … [and] it was unclear how those were obtained, that it fell under this policy.”
As Cruz pointed out, The Post clearly noted in its reporting that the trove of emails and other personal materials were obtained from a laptop that formerly belonged to Biden, and was abandoned at a Delaware electronics repair shop, becoming the owner’s property under store policy and agreed to in writing by Biden.
Dorsey admitted the error, but Cruz pointed out the newspaper cannot get into their account. Dorsey responded that the publication can if it logs in and deletes the tweets about Biden.
But then The New York Post can repost its articles about Biden. I’m so confused:
“They weren’t hiding what they claimed to be the source,” Cruz said. “Is it your position that Twitter, when you can’t tell the source, blocks press stories?”
Protested Dorsey, “No, not at all. Our team made a fast decision.”
He also noted that policy has since been amended to avoid a similar situation.
But Cruz then pressed on why The Post’s Twitter account remains blocked, two weeks after the ban was rescinded.
“They have to log into their account, which they can do at this minute, delete the original tweet, which fell under our original enforcement actions, and they can tweet the exact same material, the exact same article and it would go through,” Dorsey said.
Cruz noted the obvious (emphasis mine):
Cruz also drew a sharp distinction between Twitter striking down a fringe social-media voice and a major news outlet.
“Let’s be clear: The New York Post isn’t just some random guy tweeting. The New York Post has the fourth-highest circulation of any newspaper in America. The New York Post is 200-years-old. The New York Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton,” he said. “And your position is that you can sit in Silicon Valley and that you can tell them what stories they can publish, and you can tell the American people what reporting they can hear, is that right?
“The media must genuflect and obey your dictates if they wish to be able to communicate with readers, is that right?”
Dorsey repeated that The Post is welcome to return — if they delete the original Hunter Biden messages.
“We’re not blocking The Post…,” he said, before being cut off by Cruz.
“Can the New York Post post on their Twitter account?” pressed the lawmaker.
“If they go into their account…,” began Dorsey.
“No, is your answer to that,” cut in Cruz. “Unless they genuflect and agree with your dictates.”
Holocaust Denial
Highlight: @SenCoryGardner: "Someone who denies the Holocaust happened is not misinformation?"@Jack: "It's misleading information but we don't have a policy against that type of misleading information."
Sen. Gardner: "Millions of people died." pic.twitter.com/WVxSEhIUlw
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) October 28, 2020
So let me get this straight.
Twitter will censor President Donald Trump’s tweets as misinformation and lock The New York Post‘s account over Hunter Biden’s laptop, but doesn’t have a policy about the Holocaust?
How can you have a “misleading information” policy that does not include documented historical events, especially catastrophic and atrocious ones like the Holocaust?
If you don’t have a misleading information policy that doesn’t include the Holocaust then maybe you shouldn’t have one at all.
These people still want us to think they are fair and unbiased.
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Comments
Anyone who claims section 230 was premised on an expectation of political neutrality is lying. Congress could have put that in, but didn’t.
Justice Thomas’s comments in the Malwarebytes case are mostly correct, but irrelevant to this topic. It’s true that the courts have read more into section 230 than is there. But he’s wrong when he complains that a provider could censor content in a racist way. It’s undisputed that bookshops can do so, and congress intended to make it clear that ICSes were in the same category.
Someone said that Dorsey committed perjury. Was he under oath? Sworn in before testimony? Just curious. My opinion, he should have been.
“Dorsey admitted the error, but Cruz pointed out the newspaper cannot get into their account. Dorsey responded that the publication can if it logs in and deletes the tweets about Biden.”
They can’t log in until they delete the tweet and they can’t delete the tweet until they log in? Is this the Twitter version of Catch-22?
Their access is limited by Twitter, so they can remove tweets but can’t post/do anything at all beyond that. This happens frequently on conservative accounts: you log in and then get a message that you must delete this or these tweet/s to unlock your account. All functionality except deleting posts is removed. I hope this helps.
You remember back when your kids were young and you were trying to teach them how to act? When they did something wrong and you said “don’t do that”. They did it again and you said “hey, don’t do that”. They did it again and you raised your voice “I told you not to do that”. When it happened again and you yelled “HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO DO THAT?”. Then they did it again and you’d finally had enough and grounded them, or restricted their screen time, or put them in time out (or spanked their butts if you’re my age)…and they FINALLY stopped doing it.
I’m not impressed by senators blustering and pontificating and bloviating. Until they actually DO SOMETHING to hold these people accountable, it’s nothing more than political grandstanding and means nothing.
I’ll be impressed with Ted Cruz when he stops sounding tough and starts taking some concrete action.
Taliban Jack, what a turd.
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