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Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Sunday accused the Biden administration of being “in bed with Big Tech,” saying comments made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki last week did not only strengthens the trial of former President Donald Trump accusing Facebook and Twitter of censorship.
“I kind of wonder if Jen Psaki is in Donald Trump’s pay because her press conference bolstered President Trump’s lawsuit against Big Tech,” Cruz said during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” by Fox News. “It clearly shows that everything we thought about the Biden administration – its willingness to trample on free speech, trample on the Constitution, use the power of government to silence you, whatever we feared they do, they do and worse. And I think President Trump’s trial has gotten much, much stronger this week. ”
As coronavirus cases increase and vaccination rates have slowed in the United States, the White House has launched an effort to crack down on misinformation, beginning with a warning from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that the false information on coronavirus are an “urgent threat” to public health.
The Surgeon General’s office has released a new report titled “Dealing with Health Misinformation,” which makes recommendations to social media platforms to “impose clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies “.
WHITE HOUSE DOUBLE ON ITS SUSTAINABLE FACEBOOK CRITICS FOLLOWING BIDEN’S ‘KILLS’ REMARKS
Psaki doubled down on the administration’s relationship with Facebook on Friday and said he “makes sure social media platforms are up to date with the latest stories,” and even added that if a user is banned from a platform. -form “for providing disinformation”, this user should be banned from all others.
“We don’t delete anything. We don’t block anything, Facebook and any private sector company decide what information should be on their platform,” Psaki said in defense of the relationship and reported this week that 12 people are to blame for 65 % of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms.
Speaking to host Maria Bartiromo, Cruz posed a hypothetical situation, suggesting that what Biden is doing now to pressure Facebook to act would strike a chord if, for example, the White House orders an organization paramilitary deprived of seizing the weapons of the Americans – then signed a law freeing this paramilitary group from any civil responsibility for its actions.
Cruz explained that the protection of the First Amendment applies to government censorship, but the White House comments illustrate how private companies with a monopoly could also eradicate free speech.
“The Supreme Court has long recognized a series of cases where the government uses a private company as a tool, as an arm to implement government policy – in this case when the government explicitly asks a private monopoly to” censor speech following which we do not agree, “that this private company can be treated as a state actor,” said Cruz.
President Joe Biden accused tech companies of “killing people” by allowing misinformation to stay on their platforms, comments that drew a quick reprimand from Facebook.
“The White House is looking for scapegoats for missing its vaccination targets,” a Facebook spokesperson told NBC’s Dylan Byers.
Appearing on Fox News ahead of his Turning Point USA Student Action Summit speech, Cruz further accused both the Democratic Party and Big Tech of being “in bed” with the Chinese Communist Party.
“Big Tech is in bed with the Chinese Communists,” said Cruz. “Among the biggest donors to the Democratic Party are the giant corporations. And many of the giant corporations, the Fortune 50 and Fortune 500, are in bed with the Chinese Communists.
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Among her examples, Biden named Linda Thomas-Greenfield as United Nations ambassador despite her speech at a China-funded Confucius Institute event the State Department reversed its policy of banning Taiwanese flags on US government properties to appease the Chinese government and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejecting a Green New Deal amendment that would have banned the purchase of electric cars in the region of China where Uyghurs are held in camps in concentration.
Emma Colton, Marisa Schultz and Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News contributed to this report.
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