U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has long warned that Big Tech poses the single greatest threat to U.S. democracy and the First Amendment, today along with Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced the committee will subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey following the Big Tech giant’s censorship of the New York Post’s reporting on the Bidens in the final weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
“We have seen Big Tech – we’ve seen Twitter and Facebook – actively interfering in this election in a way that has no precedent in the history of our country. […] The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on. Chairman Lindsey Graham and I have discussed this at length, and the committee today will be noticing a markup on Tuesday to issue a subpoena to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Friday. To come before this Committee and the American people and explain why Twitter is abusing their corporate power to silence the press and to cover up allegations of corruption.
“Let me be clear: I don’t know if these New York Post stories are true or not. Those are questions Vice President Biden should answer. But Twitter and Facebook and Big Tech billionaires don’t get to censor political speech and actively interfere in the election. That’s what they’re doing right now. And so on Tuesday the Judiciary Committee, the full committee will be voting on subpoenas – to subpoena Jack Dorsey to come before our committee.”
WATCH: Sen. Cruz on Big Tech Censorship: The Judiciary Committee Wants to Know What the Hell is Going On
This comes after Sen. Cruz sent letters to Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting information behind their decision to censor the New York Post stories – calling the move an ‘obvious and transparent attempt’ to influence the November election. Read the letters here.
On Fox News’ ‘Fox & Friends’ this morning, Sen. Cruz said:
“Facebook and Twitter decided to do more than ignore [the New York Post’s reporting]. [They decided], to censor it and silence it. To prevent people from even finding out the facts of the press story. […] Big Tech has been getting worse and worse and worse, but they really crossed a line here. They crossed a line that is very dangerous.
“For years I’ve been focusing on Big Tech censorship of conservatives, of conservative ideas, of shadow banning. I’ve chaired multiple hearings on it. But the line they crossed here is The New York Post has the fourth highest circulation in America. They did two things on this. Number one, they blocked all of their users. If you wanted to share this story from The New York Post, you clicked on the link and you went up to a page that said blocked, ‘this information is dangerous.’ Well, maybe it’s dangerous for Biden’s political fortunes, but that’s not really Twitter and Facebook’s call to make.
“And then, secondly, the New York Post itself was sending out on Facebook and Twitter their own story, and they blocked The Post. They blocked The Post from sending it. I don’t know of any precedent of a major news outlet being blocked by Twitter and Facebook, of them deciding the following news outlets are not allowed to report major evidence of corruption from one of the two presidential candidates a couple weeks before the election. It is stunning.”
WATCH: Sen. Cruz Calls Out Big Tech Over Censorship
On Wednesday, Sen. Cruz appeared on Fox Businesses’ ‘Mornings with Maria’ where he responded to a report from Dr. Robert Epstein – a respected senior research psychologist who testified that Google’s biased search results swung a minimum of 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016 – who now claims that Google is using its influence to flip the Senate. Sen. Cruz said:
“Dr. Epstein, he’s a respected academic, he was the editor of Psychology Today nationally, and he’s not a Republican. He is a liberal Democrat. He voted for Hillary Clinton, he publicly supported Hillary Clinton. But he’s outraged that Silicon Valley billionaires would manipulate democracy to this extent. He also testified that if they continue doing what they do and double down in 2020, they could shift as many as 10 million votes to the Democrats.
“I think that’s what Google is doing. They are furious that they allowed Trump to win four years ago. And Big Tech is trying to silence any voice of dissent. And when it comes to the Senate, listen, I’m leading the fight to hold Google accountable. There are others who are also engaged, and Big Tech is a monopoly. I think they are also brazenly violating the anti-trust laws. I’ve been urging the administration to use the antitrust laws to go after Big Tech for four years. They’re finally moving to do so. But it is dangerous and the biggest threat to free speech we’ve got in the country.”
WATCH: Cruz on Fox Biz: Big Tech is Trying to Silence Any Voice of Dissent
As chairman of the Subcommittee on The Constitution, Sen. Cruz is leading the fight in the Senate to hold Big Tech accountable to the American people:
- Sent two letters – one to Twitter and Facebook – requesting information behind the Big Tech giants’ decision to censor the New York Post’s reporting on the Bidens – calling the move an ‘obvious and transparent attempt’ to influence the November election.
- Voted in favor of issuing subpoenas against the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
- Slammed Twitter, Google, and Facebook for their separate announcements regarding political and election advertising.
- Joined Parler, an unbiased social media platform.
- Called for a criminal investigation into Twitter for blatant and willful violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran.
- Sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai raising concerns about Google’s actions to censor The Federalist.
- Sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, urging him to remove language in U.S. trade agreements similar to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides “near -blanket legal immunity” to technology companies.
- Heard testimony from Dennis Prager of PragerU, whose videos are routinely censored on YouTube, and Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist who testified that Google’s biased search results swung a minimum of 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
- Chaired multiple hearings with representatives from Twitter, Facebook, and Google, where he raised his concerns about the technology companies engaging in a disturbing pattern of political censorship.
WATCH: Sen. Cruz: Google Subjects the American People to Overt Censorship and Covert Manipulation