Texas senator Ted Cruz (R.) warned that he and his colleagues in the Senate Judiciary Committee would subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over the suppression of a report about Hunter Biden.
Cruz said Thursday that Dorsey will be called upon to explain to the committee why Twitter is "abusing" its power "to silence the press and to cover up allegations of corruption." He accused Twitter and Facebook of interfering in the election.
"Never before have we seen active censorship of a major press publication with serious allegations of corruption at one of the two candidates for president," Cruz told reporters.
Twitter and Facebook sparked controversy after they suppressed the circulation of a New York Post report that Hunter Biden arranged a meeting between a Ukrainian businessman and his father Joe Biden, then the vice president. Twitter is also suppressing the circulation of a follow-up story from the Post concerning Hunter Biden's business dealings with a Chinese energy company. The platform prevented users from tweeting the story or sending it to others.
The Biden campaign denied that the meeting took place and said that the Post never contacted it about the story.
Cruz posted a screenshot of his attempt to tweet the Post's follow-up story Thursday morning.
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1316738930348363776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1316738930348363776%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_0&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fintelligencer%2F2020%2F10%2Ftwitter-facebook-block-ny-post-hunter-biden-article.html
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) noted that false stories about Republicans have never been blocked on social media and said those companies' power has become "dangerous," warning that other speech could be targeted.
"You may be a Democrat saying, 'I don't want to hear the New York Post.' It could be you tomorrow," Graham said.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) agreed with Cruz and Graham and said the subcommittee on crime and terrorism "invited both Jack Dorsey and [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg to come and testify."
"I hope that we'll subpoena both Twitter and Facebook. They should both come," Hawley said. "They're both engaged in censorship. They're both massive monopolies. They should answer to the Judiciary Committee."