Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies remotely at a hearing with major technology companies in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2020, to discuss reform of Section 230 of the Communications Act.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, again asked Twitter to provide documents related to its internal implementation of content review policies.
The lawmakers asked Twitter to provide “a description of all content review decisions” made last year, as well as information about its decision to impose a “censorship policy” on then-President Donald Trump regarding mail-in ballots and the “autonomous zone in Washington, D.C. zone in Washington, D.C., which was labeled as a “fact check”.
In the letter, the lawmakers said Twitter has played a “leading role” among major technology companies in enforcing political content censorship. During the election, Twitter blocked stories from a mainstream news outlet (the New York Post) that were unfavorable to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden‘s son, Hunter Biden, and then blocked President Trump’s account.
The letter, written directly to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reads, “Big tech companies, especially Twitter, are practicing systematic discrimination based on opinion. Twitter has played a leading role in suppressing and censoring the political speech of conservative Americans in the unfortunate phenomenon of ‘cancellation Culture.'”
The letter reads, “In recent months, Twitter curbed the dissemination of a mainstream newspaper article critical of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, and subsequently took the unprecedented step of blocking the then-president of the United States. If Twitter can do this to the president of the United States, it can do it to any American for any reason.”
The letter also noted that last July, Twitter failed to provide the “review of the size, competitiveness and role of social media companies” requested by then-senior member of the House Oversight Committee and Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. Competitiveness and Role of Social Media Companies.
The two Republican congressmen set a deadline of 5 p.m. March 18 for Twitter.
The letter was also copied to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
Last November, a number of Trump’s posts about massive irregularities in the election results and counting process were deleted from both Twitter and Facebook.
Since Nov. 5 of last year, a dozen posts or retweets made by Trump have been censored by Twitter. Some of those posts were hidden. A hashtag displayed on the deleted page reads, “Some or all of the content shared in this tweet is controversial and may mislead about the election or other civic processes.”
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