The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted unanimously on Thursday to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said at a commerce committee meeting Thursday that he hoped the bipartisan votes to subpoena Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sounded an alarm for the tech sector.
“Big Tech, I believe, poses the single greatest threat to free speech in our country today, and poses the single greatest threat to democracy in our day,” Mr. Cruz said at the hearing. “Now the concerns about Big Tech on both sides of the aisle are somewhat different, but it should speak volumes that every member of this committee just voted to issue these subpoenas. Big Tech are the robber barons of the 21st century.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, said she agreed with Mr. Cruz’s view of Big Tech as having monopoly power but she disputed any suggestion that the tech sector has an anti-conservative bias. Ms. Klobuchar urged her colleagues to channel the consensus into action against Big Tech’s power.
“I just don’t want us to be the Senate of all words and no action,” Ms. Klobuchar said at the meeting. “Because that is what we have come to when it comes to this area. … When it comes to being willing to get out of our relationships that people may have with all these companies and think what is best for capitalism, what is best for this country, and that is to have an even playing field.”
No date has yet been set for a hearing for the Big Tech CEOs to testify.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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