Sen. Johnson SKEWERS Dorsey for Denying Twitter Influences Elections

October 28th, 2020 4:46 PM

In a hearing about Big Tech censorship, a Republican raked Twitter’s CEO over the coals for daring to suggest that it doesn’t influence American elections.

How can Russian interference be to blame for the 2016 election, but Big Tech companies themselves can never interfere? Big Tech CEO’s can’t seem to answer that question at today’s Big Tech hearing. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on October 28. The “Does Section 230’s Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?” hearing featured questioning of these Big Tech CEOs led by Chairman and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss).

The hearing’s stated goal, in short, was pitched as to “provide an opportunity to discuss the unintended consequences of Section 230’s liability shield and how best to preserve the internet as a forum for open discourse.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) ensured that the hearing is one Dorsey will never forget.

Johnson slammed the absurdity of Big Tech liberals scapegoating Russia for election interference via social media, while pretending Big Tech platforms have no influence themselves: “You all believe that Russia has the ability to influence the elections or interfere by using your social platforms. Mr. Dorsey, do you still deny that you don’t have the ability to influence and interfere in our elections?”

Dorsey replied “Twitter as a company? No.”

Johnson wasn’t having it. He directly brought up how Twitter censored the  “New York Post.” He noted that the platform is “withholding, what I believe is true information from the American public?” 

Johnson then asked both Dorsey and Zuckerberg if either could provide “any evidence that the New York Post story is part of Russian disinformation or that those emails aren’t authentic?” Neither could provide their own evidence.

This hearing where Johnson made these comments had indeed been launched shortly after recent censorship of a New York Post article across multiple Big Tech platforms. The shocking revelation released by the Post on Oct. 14, cited purported emails from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter and reportedly exposed the alleged scandalous dealings of both father and son in the Russia-bordering state of Ukraine.

Facebook responded by reducing the story’s circulation on its platform, crippling its ability to spread. Twitter responded by disabling the link to the story, claiming: “Warning: this link may be unsafe.” Twitter then censored the Post, the White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, OANN’s Jack Posobiec, the Trump Campaign, James Woods, Dana Loesch and even the House Judiciary, a part of the government, for sharing this story.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representative and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.