Zuckerberg Tried To Weasel Out Of The Truth, But Ted Cruz Put Him In His Place
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This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress. Most of our leaders were too cowardly to confront the billionaire regarding his social network, but Ted Cruz put Zuckerberg in this place, confronting him over this crucial issue.
Facebook has been in hot water lately. For years, users and companies have been harassed by the website’s ever-changing policies. Everyone from podcasters to news sites have seen their numbers go up and down, as the social network played with their followers.
Regular users have been shocked by the way Facebook violated their privacy. People regularly prove how its smartphone apps monitor their conversations, recording private things they say at home. Facebook has routinely used personal information to exploit its users.
But only recently has the left seemed to care. When word came out that an analytics company may have had access to user data during the election, Democrats flipped. Naturally, they are trying to use it as another excuse for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Only after this scandal broke, did it seem like Congress cared about what Facebook was doing. It prompted CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in front of them this week in Washington, D.C.
Numerous senators waffled, squandering their opportunity to confront the young billionaire. It seems like these swamp dwellers were too cowardly to question Mark over Facebook’s many cases of abuse. As they blathered on about fake news, hate speech, and data, only Ted Cruz hit the nail on the head. When he was finally given a chance to speak, he did not disappoint. The Texas senator grilled Zuckerberg over Facebook’s obvious bias against conservative pages and users.
While other senators on today’s committee on Facebook panicked about “hate speech” and “fake news,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz, alone, grilled Zuckerberg on an issue that matters to voters: censorship of dissident voices and political bias at Facebook.
Cruz raised a number of issues during his questioning, including the recent censorship of Diamond & Silk on Facebook, the controversial firing of Oculus VR founder Palmer Lucky, and the question of Facebook’s legal status as a neutral public forum…
Zuckerberg avoided giving Cruz a direct yes-or-no answer, despite the Senator asking numerous times.
“We consider ourselves to be a platform for all ideas” said Zuckerberg.
“Are you a First Amendment speaker expressing your views, or are you a neutral public forum allowing everyone to speak?” pressed Cruz.
Zuckerberg went on to list some of the things that are banned from the platform, including “hate speech, terrorist content, nudity” and “anything that makes people feel unsafe in the community.” [Source: Breitbart]
Ted Cruz has always been a strong Constitutionalist, whose views resonate with many patriots. It’s great to see at least one of our representatives actually using this opportunity appropriately. But let me ask this: why didn’t anyone else on that board bother to do the same?
Are the rest of our elected leaders such cowards? Are they so unwilling to ask Zuckerberg these basic questions? Millions of Americans use Facebook. Many of their own voters are on the platform. Aren’t these senators at all concerned that citizens are being censored on this platform?
This should be especially concerning for conservative senators. After all, their supporters use Facebook to spread their ideas (including support for senators, come election time). If Facebook is censoring Republicans on the platform, that could hurt them. Yet these swamp dwellers refused to put the screws to Zuckerberg. I guess his contributions to their campaigns might have swayed their opinions.
Thankfully, Ted Cruz seems to be the only one with a spine. He asked these pointed questions, demanding that Zuckerberg explains the social network’s dubious policy on Free Speech. Naturally, he could not provide adequate responses.
Accusing Facebook of giving “conflicting answers” on whether they are a neutral public forum, Cruz went on to outline voters’ concerns about political censorship.
“There are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship.”
Cruz went on to cite the trending news scandal of 2016, in which it was reported that Facebook “routinely suppressed” conservative stories from its Trending News feature.