"I'll take care of you": NPR

Twitter's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, testifies at a home committee hearing on energy and trade about Twitter's transparency and accountability.

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Twitter's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, testifies at a home committee hearing on energy and trade about Twitter's transparency and accountability.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Updated at 18:34 ET

Congressmen clashed Wednesday with giants of the Internet world – including, in one case, a personal confrontation in the hallway.

Twitter's president, Jack Dorsey, faced questions Wednesday afternoon from a House committee, while Republicans criticized Big Tech for suppressing online conservatives.

And Florida Senator Marco Rubio struggled with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after Jones confronted and touched him outside a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Jones interrupted Rubio as he was being interviewed by a scrum of reporters outside a room where the intelligence committee was hearing Dorsey and Facebook operations manager Sheryl Sandberg.

Jones says that Democrats are behind the broader efforts in the world of technology to censor programming in which he launches a range of debunked theories. He says Republicans like Rubio claim that unfair censorship "does not exist".

Alex Jones, radio host, conspiracy theorist and creator of the Infowars website, addresses members of the media on the sidelines of a hearing of the Senate's intelligence committee Wednesday.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Alex Jones, radio host, conspiracy theorist and creator of the Infowars website, addresses members of the media on the sidelines of a hearing of the Senate's intelligence committee Wednesday.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Wednesday, while Rubio was answering reporters' questions, Jones raised his voice to call Senator "frat-boy" and declared that he was a "snake", before he pat him shoulder condescendingly .

A security guard warned Jones not to touch Rubio until the senator turns to him.

"Hey, do not touch me anymore, man," Rubio said. "I'm asking you not to touch me."

"Well, I just patted you gently," Jones said.

"Well, I do not want to be touched – I do not know who you are," Rubio said.

Jones asked if he was going to be arrested, to whom Rubio replied, "You're not going to be arrested, man, you're not going to be arrested." I'll take care of you- even."

Jones seemed to like the confrontation, asking if Rubio was going to beat him.

"I did not say that," said Rubio.

Rubio then laughed and turned away while Jones called him a "gangster gangster". Jones turned to a person filming the interaction and said, "Rubio has just physically threatened to take care of me."

Rubio answered the question of another reporter, as Jones shouted beside him, before leaving the fray.

Throughout the interaction, Rubio repeatedly asserted that he did not know who Jones was and said he had not read his website.

Criticism of "bias"

Jones is at the center of a political dispute over freedom of expression that continues in Congress this week. Facebook, YouTube, Apple and Spotify have all taken action in recent months to remove the content published by Jones.

"At a time when these same platforms said they would try to get rid of the false information, false news, they had a hard time explaining why they allowed Jones to continue operating," said David Folkenflik. last month .

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz invoked a warning associated with the early days of the Holocaust by suggesting that what he called Jones' removal was the beginning of a slippery slope toward deletion other political speeches.

Republicans, conservatives and President Trump have focused their comments on other examples of what they call the removal of conservative Big Tech voices.

According to them, on Twitter, they disproportionately ban the Conservatives and the suspension of some accounts by Facebook, including those of supporters of Trump, Diamond and Silk.

Technology companies deny any systemic bias, but Wednesday afternoon, Dorsey was put on the defensive by the Republicans. They echoed Trump's complaints that he and other people in the political right would be treated unfairly.

"We would not have this discussion if there was not general agreement that your company had discriminated against the Conservatives," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

Dorsey tweeted his opening statement live and explicitly denied any allegation of political selectivity by his company.

"Looking at the data, we analyzed the tweets sent by all members of the House and Senate and found no statistically significant difference between the number of Tweets from a Democrat and from the US. a Republican even after our ranking and our filtering was applied, "Dorsey said.

Democrats opposed Republicans for what they called political protests and diverted attention from real problems with Twitter and other social media companies. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., Called the question of bias "charade", while representative Mike Doyle, D-Pa., Described it as "hogwash".

"President Trump and many Republicans have been peddling conspiracy theories on Twitter and other social media platforms to create their base and fundraising," said Frank Pallone, Democratic Representative of the Committee.

There will likely be more public inquiries and comments: Attorney General Jeff Sessions quoted the Senate hearing on Wednesday as announcing that he intended to meet with Attorneys General to discuss prejudices.

Big Tech is caught between the commitments it has made to provide open platforms and the pressure from Congress to suppress the spread of false information, but does so in a measured way and without any unintended consequences.

"I want to start by making something clear: we do not consider political views, perspectives or party membership in our policies or enforcement decisions." Said Wednesday Mr. Dorsey. "Impartiality is our guiding principle."

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