On this episode of “Closing the Stable Door After the Horse Has Bolted,” Twitter’s Jack Dorsey admitted “this action was wrong” in reference to Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden email scandal during a virtual appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.
As reported by Fox News, Dorsey told the committee the censorship has since been “corrected.”
Twitter locked the New York Post’s account on October 15 over a Post article about a laptop and emails later proved to be Hunter Biden’s, while Facebook limited the distribution of the article but did not block it entirely. Senate Republicans then sought to strip Twitter and Facebook, and other social media companies of legal protection they enjoy because they are not considered publishers under the law, according to Fox.
Facebook, Twitter take heat over Hunter Biden story during hearing; Dorsey admits ‘this action was wrong’ https://t.co/Xcdzvrhqf3 #FoxNews
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) November 17, 2020
Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ripped Dorsey hard during his opening statement — and every single word Graham said was correct.
“That to me seems like you’re the ultimate editor. The editorial decision by the New York Post to run the story was overridden by Twitter and Facebook in different fashions to prevent its dissemination. Now if that’s not making an editorial decision I don’t know what would be.”
In Dorsey’s opening statement, he said Twitter locked the account based on its 2018 policy against spreading hacked material, a claim he also made during a previous appearance before the committee.
“We made a quick interpretation using no other evidence that the materials in the article were obtained through hacking, and according to our policy, we blocked them from being spread. Upon further consideration, we admitted this action was wrong and corrected it within 24 hours.”
Questions abound. Principal among them: On what basis did Twitter determine hacking occurred — other than its own political biases?
As my RedState colleague streiff wrote in separate articles late last month, one titled Jack Dorsey Lies to Ted Cruz in Senate Hearing on Twitter’s Election Interference But Will the Senate Do Anything, and the second, Is Jack Dorsey a Pathological Liar or Has He Simply Lost All Control Over Twitter, Dorsey did not have even a casual relationship with the truth during his first appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During this morning’s appearance, Dorsey told the committee that Twitter told the Post its account would be unlocked if it deleted the article and that the paper would then be allowed to resume tweeting. As reported by Fox, The Post instead pushed for Twitter to reverse its decision to block the paper in the first place. Dorsey said at the time that Twitter did not have a process in place for doing so. Again, I refer you to streiff’s articles.
“This incident demonstrated that we needed one,” he said this morning, “so we created one we believe is fair and appropriate.”
Oh, please. Show of hands; who thinks Jack Dorsey, of all people in media, has any desire, let alone intention, to be “fair” to conservative content? As we speak, Twitter is censoring every conservative-content tweet it can get its left-wing hands on.
Yes, hyperbole, to make a valid point.
Dinesh D’Souza picked up on Ted Cruz’s destruction of Dorsey:
“Wow, @tedcruz just asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to define what a “publisher” is then used his own response to DESTROY his entire argument and expose Twitter’s blatant censorship of conservatives.”
You can view the clip on Rumble, who correctly observed: “Ted Cruz Uses Twitter CEO’s Response to OWN Him and Expose Their Blatant Censorship.”
Wow, @tedcruz just asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to define what a “publisher” is then used his own response to DESTROY his entire argument and expose Twitter’s blatant censorship of conservatives.
What a moment:https://t.co/IXtHVn6xtK
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) November 17, 2020
Dorsey proposed to the committee three changes moving forward, suggesting that all would then be fair on Planet Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg was unavailable for comment. [sarc]
First, the expansion of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says social media companies like Facebook and Twitter cannot be held liable for statements posted by users because the companies themselves do not create or edit content as a newspaper would — a condition both Twitter and Facebook violated, as pointed out by Graham. Blocking content — or limiting its distribution — is as “editorial” as it gets.
Second, new legislation by Congress that would address the “problem” (which was actually nothing more than eager censorship of content that both Twitter and Facebook believed could potentially damage Joe Biden’s election chances), and third, a commitment by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies to engage in self-regulation. Yeah, if you happen to own a farm, don’t bet it on robust “self-regulation” by Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg — as it relates to conservative content, that is.
And so here we are, two weeks out from the most contentious presidential election in modern history — the results of which are yet to be officially determined.
As I reported in an article last week titled Glenn Greenwald Torches Media, ‘Shameless Pathological Liar’ Adam Schiff & Others for Dismissing Hunter Biden Scandal, the investigative journalist and former CEO of The Intercept summed up the censorship and disinformation campaign by the Democrats and social media in seven stark words:
“This disinformation campaign has done its job.”
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