Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sparred with Washington Post opinion columnist Max Boot over Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar offer to purchase Twitter.
Boot said he is “frightened” of the impact Musk’s ownership of the platform will have on society if he allows users to speak freely without consequences. The Tesla CEO offered the platform’s board chair, Bret Taylor, $43.4 billion to buy Twitter.
“He seems to believe that anything on social media goes,” he said on Thursday. “For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”
“If the Left thinks they’re right, why are they so TERRIFIED of free speech?” Cruz pushed back.
“I’m not on the left, @tedcruz, and I’m not terrified of free speech,” Boot replied. “By I am concerned by politicians—like, cough, you—who spread disinformation and try to overthrow our democracy.” The columnist attached a Post article titled “Inside Ted Cruz’s last-ditch battle to keep Trump in power” giving insight into Cruz’s role of being one of 11 senators to object to the Electoral College certification in January 2021.
“It’s cute, these blue-checkmark people who pretend to be journalists (nice hat!) while begging Silicon Valley billionaires to keep giving them an exclusive platform (Bezos! Dorsey!) AND silence anyone who dares to speak,” the senator hit back. “Cough all you want; you’re scared of free speech.”
“I realize you’re just trolling, @tedcruz, which seems to be your full time job,” Boot said. “But your claim that I want an ‘exclusive platform’ at the Post or Twitter [is] silly. There are a million different voices in both places, many conservative views. I support that. What I don’t support is dangerous misinformation like the Big Lie about the 2020 election that you spread. As one of your great colleagues said: ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.’”
This is an excerpt from the Daily Caller.
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