Sen. Josh Hawley Announces Vote To Subpoena Twitter CEO Amid Censorship
GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, announced plans to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before the committee regarding his company’s decision to block two New York Post stories.
The stories contained allegations regarding Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s and son Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine and China.
Cruz, with Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina by his side, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday that the committee will vote on a subpoena Tuesday that will require Dorsey to testify on Oct. 23.
“This is election interference, and we are 19 days out from an election,” Cruz said.
“Never before have we seen active censorship of a major press publication with serious allegations of corruption of one of the two candidates for president.”
Never before have we seen the censorship of a major outlet’s reporting, with serious allegations of corruption by a presidential candidate, days before an election. #BigTech crossed a line & must be held accountable. That’s why @senjudiciary is going to subpoena @jack. pic.twitter.com/FYHTacmbWr
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 15, 2020
“The allegations in the New York Post story, if true, indicate that Vice President Biden lied when he said he had never discussed his son’s business dealings,” Cruz added.
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He noted the Post has the fourth-largest circulation of any paper in the country, but Twitter blocked it from sharing the story.
The senator recounted that Twitter is not only blocking the Post story about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine, but also a second story regarding Hunter Biden’s financial relationships within communist China.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on,” Cruz said.
Pleased to announce the full Judiciary Committee will vote on subpoena to @Twitter and @jack on Tuesday. That subpoena should include @Facebook
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 15, 2020
Hawley concurred with Cruz’s assessment.
“Taking this action is absolutely necessary,” Hawley said. “The attempt to rig an election, which is what we are seeing here by monopolies, is unprecedented in American history.”
The senator wants leaders from both Twitter and Facebook to appear before the committee.
“They should answer to the American people, and that’s what this is about,” Hawley said.
Bring @Twitter and @Facebook to the Judiciary Committee pic.twitter.com/mEYKS97P71
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 15, 2020
According to the emails acquired by the Post, “Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.”
“The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.”
Twitter sent a series of tweets Wednesday night seeking to explain why it banned the Post stories.
The social media giant pointed to its policy about not sharing hacked emails. Dorsey conceded Twitter’s handling of the matter has been “unacceptable.”
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020
The company’s 2018 policy prohibits the distribution of content “obtained without authorization” and that might include “possibly illegally obtained materials.”
The policy, established in 2018, prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization. We don’t want to incentivize hacking by allowing Twitter to be used as distribution for possibly illegally obtained materials.https://t.co/qx9rlzWH4O
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
However, Twitter said, “Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren’t a violation of this policy.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
