The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to issue a subpoena Tuesday to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey – but those plans seem to be on hold. When will the remaining conservative leaders in Washington have enough of this abuse? Freedom loving Americans have long been fed up with the double standards, suspensions, editorializing, and censorship by social media corporations. Active interference in elections should be troubling to those on both sides of the aisle – but it looks like the Democrats and even some Republicans will try to whistle past the Biden scandal graveyard on this one.
Senators are hardly the only individuals owed an explanation (and now not getting it) for the blatant censorship of evidence of the Biden’s criminal enterprise. Everyone on social media deserve answers about why Twitter can behave like the Chinese Communist Party and control access to, as well as dissemination of, information. These actions should be stopped immediately if social media corporations are going to continue to enjoy broad immunity from due process and courts.
Twitter’s advocacy for Biden’s candidacy became painfully evident as it took drastic measures to wield its power over millions of American users. Just as a news organization, founded by Alexander Hamilton, discovered information that could possibly influence voter decisions – Dorsey and other social media corporate leaders sprang into immediate action and blocked others from learning about press releases. While far from the first time overt social media activism has occurred, it is the most egregious illustration of its bias against certain political speech to date.
Silencing and suspensions of accounts belonging to news organizations, the White House Press Secretary, PACs, and even President Trump’s campaign, is unfair and likely unconstitutional too. Scrubbing the platform to erase mentions of the Biden laptop and its contents is even more troubling.
Senators must simply ask, “Why?” They must reconsider issuing these subpoenas and hold these leaders accountable.
While there is no legitimate explanation, surely there will be many excuses offered if Twitter leadership has the courage to defend its censorship – and Senators have the courage to ask. Excuses that have been floated so far include that the information from the Biden computer could have been obtained illegally and therefore violated Twitter’s terms of service.
If these issues are raised, Senators must ask: Mr. Dorsey why the leaked and incomplete information about President Trump’s tax returns was not suppressed in the same way?
It seems if it were not for double standards, Twitter would have no standards at all.
Dorsey will likely attempt to sow confusion by also claiming the information from the Biden laptop is unverified and in violation of its terms of service. However, these game changing revelations about how the former Vice President profited from and may be subject to blackmail from foreign leaders is undisputed and unchallenged by Vice President Biden, his campaign, and his family.
Even Adam Schiff’s attempts to call the information from the laptop a “Russian misinformation campaign” have blown up too. The Congressman raises a good point though – why were reports of the unverified, disputed (now proven false), Russian Dossier allowed to flourish on Twitter uninterrupted.
Simply put, everything the Democrats accuse President Trump of doing thrives on Twitter, even when proven false. Conversely, the same alleged crimes and even evidence of them as committed by Biden are silenced, suppressed, and scrubbed or rewritten. But this is much greater than a political problem – or favoritism.
Regardless of political tendencies, suppression of Free Speech is something that must always be fought vigorously – and anyone advocating for such a prohibition should be met with great suspicion. If a message is authentic and has support, it will stand up on its own to challenges from critics, and cynics – if it doesn’t then it will surely fail. That’s the best idea - it has to be.
Getting a message out today on social media is tough enough with all the distractions. And Twitter, Facebook, Zuckerberg, and Dorsey are not the arbiters of truth. Those who try to lie or spread misinformation will be caught. There are libel and slander laws that apply in a robust marketplace of ideas.
A free press to report information and voices from individuals are vital to maintaining our freedom as a nation. If people can no longer get the information they want or need from social media platforms, they will go elsewhere for it – and we will see users voting with their fingers as they leave Twitter for a more engaging marketplace – one that refuses to pick favorites or censor ideas. So, if you take blanket immunity from our Government then you should promote free speech!
Shaun McCutcheon, a Free Speech advocate is an Alabama based electrical engineer and successful plaintiff in the 2014 Supreme Court case McCutcheon v. FEC