Internet Hearing

 Theodoric Meyer at Politico Influence:

CRUZ CALLS TWITTER ‘A DEMOCRATIC SUPER PAC’ IN HEARING: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) teed off on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday over the platform’s decision to temporarily block an unproven New York Post report about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter — a move that has further stoked conservatives' claims of bias,” POLITICO’s Caitlyn Oprysko reports. “In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the tech industry’s prized liability protections, Cruz accused Twitter of forcing users, including media outlets like the Post, to ‘genuflect and obey your dictates if they wish to communicate with the American people.’ …’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?’ Cruz asked Dorsey, asserting that Twitter was functioning as ‘a Democratic super PAC.’”

— Cruz criticized Twitter "for initially blocking users from posting links to the New York Post story, a move Twitter reversed within 24 hours and which Dorsey insisted he thought was a mistake."

MORE HEADACHES FOR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER: “The Justice Department said it was concerned that Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. restricted access to recent New York Post stories about the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, telling lawmakers the department supported bipartisan interest in changing a law providing legal protections to online platforms,” The Wall Street Journal’s Brent Kendall and Aruna Viswanatha report. Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday “that online platforms ‘hold tremendous power over information’ and must ‘be honest and transparent with users about how they use that power. And when they are not, it is critical that they can be held accountable.’”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn today asked if a Google engineer who has criticized her still has a job.

“He has had very unkind things to say about me and I was just wondering if you all had still kept him working there," she said https://t.co/GsU6TmV4cb pic.twitter.com/ZY2kNjwVA4

— POLITICO (@politico) October 28, 2020