'They've Decided to Be Hardcore Leftists': Cruz Slams Big Tech for Censoring Conservatives

Dan Gainor, vice president of the Media Research Center, appeared on Tuesday's CBN Newswatch program to discuss the hearings. 

Executives from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google were on Capitol Hill Tuesday, answering questions before a House Judiciary Committee about the use of anti-competitive practices, and whether they are censoring conservatives.    

The hearing comes after mounting pressure on the government to scrutinize the companies.

Lawmakers are looking into Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission probes whether the companies are using anti-competitive practices, particularly the censorship of conservatives.
    
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was also hosting a summit on Google Tuesday. He argued the tech companies often engage in anti-conservative bias. For that reason, he says a special provision in the Communications Decency Act, which gives big tech companies immunity from liability, should be reconsidered.
 
"Congress passed that under the assumption that they would be a neutral public forum," Cruz explained. "In other words, they weren't going to be biased. They weren't going to favor one view over another.  They would let all comers come to their site."

"They've decided not to do that," he continued. "They've decided to be hardcore leftists to silence, to throttle, to shadow ban conservatives. If they continue to do that, there's no reason they should get a special immunity from liability that nobody else does."         

Tuesday's hearing comes after President Trump's social media summit at the White House last week.
       
Lila Rose shared how her group, Live Action, has been permanently barred from Pinterest and had viral videos buried on YouTube.

"We have been for four years banned from doing any advertising on Twitter and they told us that in order to reinstate our accounts, we'd have to stop calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and stop sharing our pro-life content," Rose told the summit. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers on the committee will also likely have questions and criticisms about Facebook's ambitious plan to create a digital currency.