Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – (HOUSTON, Texas) – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, Dana Loesch, Axios’ Dan Primack, CNBC’s Kelly Evans and Dom Chu about Big Tech and Twitter’s unprecedented censorship of the New York Post’s reporting on the Bidens.
WATCH: Cruz on Fox Blasts Big Tech Censorship: We Are Seeing Silicon Valley Billionaires Drunk With Power
On Big Tech’s blatant election interference:
“The New York Post has the fourth largest circulation of any newspaper in America, and right now, Jack Dorsey is just behaving as Joe Biden’s press secretary. It is censorship. It is wrong.” (Sen. Cruz, Fox News, 10/15/2020)
“It’s not their role to determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t. And by the way, if the emails are fake, you know what? The New York Post can be sued for defamation. If a media outlet puts out defamation, they can be sued. You know who can’t be sued? Twitter. They’re protected by section 230. […] Big Tech has a monopoly position. We have right now, roughly 70 percent of Americans get their political news via social media, that if Big Tech blocks it – and on Twitter, not only can you not tweet it out, they’re blocking the New York Post from reaching their own followers and tweeting out their own story.” (Sen. Cruz, Axios’ Re:Cap, 10/15/2020)
“We’re 19 days out from an election, and so the reason I focused on Jack Dorsey and Twitter is because Twitter is blocking the China story. Facebook right now is not blocking the China story. So Dorsey has doubled down. I think Big Tech, frankly, is just drunk on their power.” (Sen. Cruz, Axios’ Re:Cap, 10/15/2020)
“It’s not their role to determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t. And by the way, if the emails are fake, you know what? The New York Post can be sued for defamation. If a media outlet puts out defamation, they can be sued. You know who can’t be sued? Twitter. They’re protected by section 230. […] Big Tech has a monopoly position. We have right now, roughly 70 percent of Americans get their political news via social media, that if Big Tech blocks it – and on Twitter, not only can you not tweet it out, they’re blocking the New York Post from reaching their own followers and tweeting out their own story.” (Sen. Cruz, Axios’ Re:Cap, 10/15/2020)
“We’re 19 days out from an election, and so the reason I focused on Jack Dorsey and Twitter is because Twitter is blocking the China story. Facebook right now is not blocking the China story. So Dorsey has doubled down. I think Big Tech, frankly, is just drunk on their power.” (Sen. Cruz, Axios’ Re:Cap, 10/15/2020)
On potential remedies for Big Tech’s censorship:
“Big Tech has this special immunity from liability, Section 230. […] They don’t have any entitlement to that subsidy. They shouldn’t be immune from liability, particularly if they’re going to engage in blatant censorship. So that’s number one.
“Number two is the antitrust laws, and the antitrust laws have been on the books for decades. And if you look at the Big Tech giants, you look at Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, they have power. They have a market cap that by any measure, they’re bigger and more powerful than Standard Oil was when it was broken up under the antitrust laws. […] You can’t abuse monopoly power, and that’s existing law.
“And third is, is consumer fraud and deception. And their basic promise is that that if you follow someone, you’ll see what they say. If they follow you, they’ll see what you say. They’re breaking their promise. They’re deceiving consumers, and if you lie to consumers, you can be held liable for that fraud.” (Sen. Cruz, The Dana Show, 10/15/2020)
“I expect trial lawyers will be making the argument that they’ve abandoned the protections of Section 230. […] But number two, from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and I have spoken repeatedly with the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, the Chairman of the FTC, the President of the United States, the Vice President; all about directing the enforcement authority of the administration to go after Big Tech and stop them from abusing their monopoly power, and they are monopolies under the antitrust laws, they are abusing their monopoly power.” (Sen. Cruz, CNBC, 10/15/2020)
“Number two is the antitrust laws, and the antitrust laws have been on the books for decades. And if you look at the Big Tech giants, you look at Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, they have power. They have a market cap that by any measure, they’re bigger and more powerful than Standard Oil was when it was broken up under the antitrust laws. […] You can’t abuse monopoly power, and that’s existing law.
“And third is, is consumer fraud and deception. And their basic promise is that that if you follow someone, you’ll see what they say. If they follow you, they’ll see what you say. They’re breaking their promise. They’re deceiving consumers, and if you lie to consumers, you can be held liable for that fraud.” (Sen. Cruz, The Dana Show, 10/15/2020)
“I expect trial lawyers will be making the argument that they’ve abandoned the protections of Section 230. […] But number two, from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and I have spoken repeatedly with the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, the Chairman of the FTC, the President of the United States, the Vice President; all about directing the enforcement authority of the administration to go after Big Tech and stop them from abusing their monopoly power, and they are monopolies under the antitrust laws, they are abusing their monopoly power.” (Sen. Cruz, CNBC, 10/15/2020)
On the questions Jack Dorsey needs to answer:
“What are your standards, Mr. Dorsey? Why are you choosing to silence this media story and not other stories? How do you how do you determine who gets to speak in America and who doesn’t? And how do you get to decide that you can use your corporate treasury to give what is, in effect, a multi-million dollar campaign donation to the Biden campaign, just 19 days out from an election.” (Sen. Cruz, Fox News, 10/15/2020)
Read more about Sen. Cruz’s fight against Big Tech bias here. Read Sen. Cruz’s letter to Twitter and Facebook here
