September 5, 2018

Twitter’s CEO Says the Site Does Not Discriminate Against Conservatives

But his answers weren’t good enough for Republicans in Congress.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifying before Congress. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey rolled through Congress for a pair of hearings on Wednesday, his first time testifying before Congress, and stressed in no uncertain terms that Twitter does not selectively ban conservative users. “Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules,” Dorsey said in his written testimony.

That answer, however, wasn’t good enough for Republicans, who had called Wednesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss accusations from top Republicans that the site had been “shadow-banning” and censoring conservative users. “That’s hard to stomach,” Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said of Dorsey’s defense of Twitter. “We wouldn’t be having this discussion if there wasn’t a general agreement that your company has discriminated against conservatives.”

Barton was referring to an incident earlier this summer where the social media platform had removed 600,000 users from its search results as a result of an algorithm based on how other users, who had violated Twitter’s terms of service, interacted with the account. The incident raised alarm bells from top-level Republicans, including President Donald Trump and House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who accused the company of censoring conservatives.

Dorsey’s answers also weren’t good enough for conservative conspiracy theorists who have been permanently banned by other social media companies. Alex Jones, host of the conservative conspiracy theory website InfoWars, roamed the halls of Congress Wednesday complaining that he had been banned from Facebook and temporarily barred by Twitter. The House hearing was interrupted by Laura Loomer, a former member of Project Veritas, who accused Twitter of a coordinated effort to suppress conservatives ahead of the midterms. “President Donald Trump, help us,” Loomer yelled before being escorted out of the hearing room. “Please help us, Mr. President, before it is too late, because Jack Dorsey is trying to influence the election.”

Democrats weren’t buying the Republican complaints, and spent their question time asking why Republicans weren’t focusing on securing social media platforms from foreign actors ahead of the election. “I think it’s the height of hypocrisy,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said, “for Republicans to accuse Twitter of alleged liberal bias when President Trump uses the platform every day.” 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate