Twitter’s CEO has some explaining to do over its double standard about how conservatives and liberals are treated.
On November 26, Meghan McCain’s husband Ben Domenech accused Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of lying under oath. Domenech said Dorsey failed to deliver a promised personal apology to McCain for a death threat she received on their platform. The image included a doctored photo of her at her father’s funeral showing a gun pointed at her as she mourns at her father’s casket.
“Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, asked Dorsey if he’s apologized to the McCain family.
‘I haven’t personally, but I will,’ he said. He said that under oath.Jack Dorsey has never contacted my wife or me to apologize.”
He then elaborated on why this incident is relevant to the much larger problem of bias and hypocritical political agendas in big tech platforms:
“Why is this an issue today? Because so much of our relationship with the wild west of Silicon Valley’s social media enterprises is based on clarity and confidence – a clarity about the rules, and a confidence in the belief that disputed cases are decided with equanimity, blind to the politics of those involved.”
He then cited recent events to expose the hypocrisy of Twitter’s ban policies, such as the unexplained ban of commentators like conservative veteran Jesse Kelly, or of feminist Meghan Murphy for questioning transgenderism on scientific grounds.
Like an increasing number of conservatives, Domenech invoked the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media companies from legal liability on the grounds that they “offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse.”
As he closed the article, Domenech summarized the selective censorship by big tech, stating
“Jack Dorsey is allowed to lie, and those who push the Trans agenda are allowed to lie, and if you push back against them with the truth, you eventually find you have no place on Twitter. That’s a line of delineation that in the past put you in the same category as people who were truly abusive rabble rousers. In the near future, it may just mean that you’re one of those infuriating people who still insist there are four lights.”
With those last four words he linked to a classic scene from Star Trek, where Captain Picard had been tortured, being offered mercy only if he was willing to surrender and speak falsehood. In that case, he was supposed to there were five lights beaming down upon him when he could objectively see there were only four. With Twitter banning users for stating scientific facts they see as “transphobic,” this metaphor seems as relevant as ever.
