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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Subpoenaed For "Actively Interfering" In Presidential Election

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other senators on the Judiciary Committee announced today that they will issue a subpoena to Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter.

By Jane Swift2 min read
Jack Dorsey shutterstock 1425729506
Frederic Legrand - COMEO/Shutterstock

The subpoena is for Twitter’s censorship of recent news stories that allege the corruption of Hunter Biden, the son of Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden. The Judiciary Committee considers this censorship to be election interference. Dorsey will be summoned to testify before the Committee and explain why Twitter is silencing the press and stopping people from sharing these news stories on the social media platform.

“In the last two days, we have seen a remarkable development,” Sen. Cruz said. “We have seen big tech, we’ve seen Twitter and Facebook actively interfering in this election in a way that has no precedent in the history of our country. Yesterday, the New York Post broke a story alleging serious corruption of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden concerning Ukraine. The allegations in the New York Post story, if true, indicate that Vice President Biden lied when he said that he had never discussed his son’s business dealings.”

We’ve seen Twitter and Facebook actively interfering in this election in a way that has no precedent in the history of our country.

“That story, once the New York Post broke it, was blocked by Twitter and Facebook,” Cruz continued. “Anyone who attempted to share was prevented from sharing it on Twitter and Facebook. The New York Post itself, when it attempted to put out its story, was blocked on Twitter and Facebook. The New York Post has the fourth-largest circulation of any newspaper in this country.”

To prove his point, Cruz described how he himself had attempted to share the story on Twitter and was blocked. 

“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. That was last night,” Cruz continued. “This morning the story escalated and got even worse. The New York Post broke a second story of a series of emails that indicate yet more corruption; in this instance, the Biden family receiving millions of dollars from communist China government officials.”

“This is election interference and we are 19 days out from an election.” Cruz continued. “It has no precedent in history of democracy. The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on. Chairman Lindsey Graham and I have discussed this at length and the Committee today will be noticing a mark-up on Tuesday to issue a subpoena to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Friday, to come before this Committee and the American people and explain why Twitter is abusing their corporate power to silence the press and to cover up allegations of corruption.”

Dorsey must explain why Twitter is abusing their corporate power to silence the press and to cover up allegations of corruption.

How can the Judiciary Committee call blocking people from sharing a news article on social media election interference? By looking at how Twitter handled previous reports of corruption, specifically the allegations about Trump colluding with Russia leading up to the 2016 presidential election. 

“All the allegations about Russian collusion and Trump and every other idea that Trump may have done something bad, nobody blocked that,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said. “So, what we’re going to do is we’re gonna finally have an accounting that’s long overdue. These social media platforms have a dominance in our lives, they’re newspapers, they’re tv stations, they’re radio stations, they’re publishers, and this to me crystalizes the problem better than anything I could think of for the American people. You may be a Democrat, saying I don’t want to hear the New York Post, it could be you tomorrow.”

Fox News reports that Twitter didn’t respond when asked why it allowed allegations about Russia’s election interference from the Steele Dossier but now blocks stories about Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption.

Twitter’s explanation for why it has “limited the distribution” of the New York Post stories is that they violate the company’s "Hacked Materials Policy."  

"In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter," a spokesperson said.