Ted Cruz Rips Jack Dorsey a New Anus: “Who The Hell Elected You?”

Fox News had more details on the terse exchange:

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ripped into Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during a hearing with tech titans on Wednesday, accusing him and his social media platform of improperly censoring reporting that reflected poorly on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, asking at point, "Who the hell elected you?"

The exchange comes as Republicans over the last several weeks have decried Twitter's actions to lock the New York Post's Twitter account, and censor links to the outlet's stories, on Biden's son, Hunter, and his overseas business dealings.

Dorsey said this was due to a policy regarding hacked materials, because the stories were based on emails from Hunter Biden's purported laptop. Cruz noted that a New York Times article about President Trump's tax returns did not face the same treatment, even though the materials appeared to be leaked illegally.

"Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear, and why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?" Cruz asked.

Dorsey claimed that this was not the case. He also denied that Twitter has the ability to influence elections, a claim that Cruz derided as "absurd."

“You’re testifying to this committee right now that Twitter, when it silences people, when it censors people, when it blocks political speech, that has no impact on elections?”

“People have choice of other communication channels,” Dorsey claimed.

“Not if they don’t hear information,” Cruz shot back. “If you don’t think you have the power to influence elections, why do you block anything?”

Dorsey claimed that his policies are “making sure more that voices on the platform are possible,” which is done by silencing abuse and harassment. He did admit that the policy under which the Post story was censored was flawed, and that other users should not have been blocked from sharing links to it. He claimed that individual users could now share the Post story, but soon after Cruz tweeted that this was still not the case.

The exchange came during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on what is known as Section 230 protections that keep social media platforms from being liable for statements made through their services. Dorsey appeared alongside Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Later in the hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., challenged Dorsey's claim that Twitter does not influence elections with their policies or actions. He also challenged the company's decision to censor the Post's reporting, as well as Facebook's decision to flag it.

"Do either one of you have any evidence that the New York Post story is part of Russian disinformation or that those emails aren't authentic?" Johnson asked Dorsey and Zuckerberg.

"We don't," Dorsey said. He then reiterated that they believed it violated their hacking policy, only for Johnson to point out that the emails were not hacked.

And from The Hill:

Sen. Ted Cruz during a hearing on Wednesday accused Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of censoring content with an anti-conservative bias, with the Texas Republican focusing his argument around a policy the tech company has since changed.

Cruz slammed Dorsey during the Senate Commerce Committee hearing over the company's decision earlier this month to limit the spread of a New York Post report that included allegations about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden that have been disputed by the former vice president's campaign.

The company initially blocked users, including the New York Post, from tweeting links to the article, citing Twitter's hacked material policy. The company later amended the policy and allowed users to share the links.

“Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear, and why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?” Cruz asked Dorsey during a heated exchange on Wednesday.

“We’re not doing that,” Dorsey responded. “This is why I opened this hearing with calls for more transparency. We realized we need to earn trust more, we realized that more accountability is needed to show our intentions and to show the outcomes. So I hear the concerns and acknowledge them, but we want to fix it with more transparency.”

Cruz, one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of Big Tech, said Google, Facebook and Twitter pose “the single greatest threat to free speech in America.” He took particular aim at Twitter, calling the company’s conduct the “most egregious.”

Dorsey defended the platform’s policies against Cruz’s accusations of censorship. Rather, he said, Twitter wants to make sure that “more voices on the platform are possible.”

“We see a lot of abuse and harassment, which ends up silencing people and having them leave from the platform,” Dorsey said.

He also said that the Post would be able to share its article if it deletes its initial tweet, under the company's amended policy.

Dorsey noted that every person or organization that signs up to have an account on Twitter agrees to its terms and services.

You can watch the entire thing here: