Sen. Hawley on the threat US faces from China: We need to stand up to it
President Trump prepares action against China over Hong Kong; reaction and analysis from Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
'Big Tech' is subsidized by taxpayers and censors conservative speech, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Wednesday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade, Hawley said that Americans deserve answers from these companies.
"It’s not just the censorship in China ... they’re censoring Americans," he pointed out. "Google's YouTube is censoring Americans who are criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), [and] taking their comments down."
The video giant has admitted that it automatically deleted comments that criticized the CCP, blaming the removal of certain comments on "an error" with its automated enforcement systems.
FILE - This July 19, 2016 file photo shows the Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google says it will start charging smartphone makers to pre-install apps like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps on Android handsets sold in Europe, in response to a record $5 billion EU antitrust fine. The U.S. tech giant’s announcement Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018 is a change from its previous business model, in which it let phone makers install its suite of popular mobile apps for free on phones running its Android operating system. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
“We’re always working to resolve issues on YouTube,” a YouTube spokesperson stated. “Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems.”
Users raised the issue on YouTube’s official help pages in October 2019, suggesting it was going on for at least six months.
"Why?" asked Hawley. "I mean, what is going on here?"
He also noted that social media platform Twitter had come under fire on Tuesday after labeling tweets from President Trump "potentially misleading" for the first time.
Twitter labeled two of the president's tweets that claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud "potentially misleading." Although administrators explained that the move was aimed at providing "context" around Trump's remarks, the decision prompted the president to accuse Twitter of election meddling.
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Hawley, however, believes it was censorship.
"Here is the bottom line on this: 'Big Tech' gets a huge handout from the federal government. They get this special immunity, this special immunity from suits and from liability that's worth billions of dollars to them every year," he told the "Friends" hosts. "Why are they getting subsidized by federal taxpayers to censor conservatives, to censor people critical of China?"
"They need to explain. We need some answers," he concluded.
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