Yesterday Ted Cruz held a tech committee hearing with representatives from Facebook and Twitter over allegations they are unfairly silencing conservatives on their platforms.
In order to make his point, he put the social media giants on the spot with a quote from Mother Teresa regarding abortion, asking them if they would call it hate speech.
Watch:
Nobody would say it isn’t hate speech.
Rather, the rep who did speak up seemed to suggest that the context around the tweet would have something to do with it. In other words, the motivation. The tweet can be fine but if they don’t like your motivation for posting it, HATE SPEECH!
At least that’s the way it seems to me.
Ted Cruz spoke more about this last night with Fox News:
Of note in Cruz’s comments is that he readily admits that the solution to problem like this with private companies would be complicated. But what he’s focusing on right now is something we’ve heard him mention in the past, and that is for Congress to repeal the protections they gave these social media giants:
Bream mentioned that the social media platforms were private companies prompting Cruz to admit “the remedy is complicated” and bring up one possible solution.
Cruz explained that “you can’t sue Twitter and Google and Facebook if they commit libel, if they commit slander” because they’re viewed as “neutral public forums.”
Cruz added, “Well they’re now engaged as partisan left-wing political speakers have no reason on earth they should have a special immunity from liability that protects them in a way that nobody else does.”
Cruz points out that this libel protection was granted to them via Congress on the basis that they would be neutral. But since they are not acting as neutral players, Cruz argues that they themselves are speaking through this censorship and therefore they should be open to lawsuits.
Watch the video for more.