In a letter to Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey, Sen. Josh Hawley has called for a third-party audit of Twitter’s account suspension policies. It’s pretty obvious to conservatives that Twitter blocks more conservative than liberal content and that there is no good explanation for the disparity. An independent audit would either confirm or disprove this suspicion.
The immediate impetus for Hawley’s letter comes from Twitter’s treatment of the new pro-life movie “Unplanned.” The Senator states in his letter to Dorsey:
Last week, Twitter suspend[ed] the account of the pro-life movie Unplanned—on opening weekend, no less—raising yet more questions about your supposed commitment to free speech. Just as bad, after you lifted the suspension, 99 percent of Unplanned’s followers mysteriously disappeared.
Hawley, though, has been a persistent critic of Twitter, and views the treatment of “Unborn” as simply the latest manifestation of its politically biased practices. He also cited an instance in which Twitter refused to allow pro-life group Live Action to purchase ads because the content was deemed “inflammatory,” but allowed pro-abortion groups to advocate late-term abortion on the platform.
Hawley reminded Dorsey that Congress has given Twitter immunity from liability for illegal content posted by third parties on the assumption that Twitter provides “a forum for a true diversity of political discourse.” If Twitter doesn’t provide such a forum, the rationale for immunity disappears and immunity should be revoked.
Hawley stated:
I am rapidly losing confidence that Twitter is committed to the free speech principles that justify immunity . . .It is time for Twitter to prove it is truly committed to free speech: conduct a third-party audit and release the results to the public, in full.
Twitter claims that the account of “Unplanned” was suspended in error. An independent audit would enable impartial (one hopes) observers to assess this claim. They could also assess whether such “errors” are evenly distributed between conservative and liberal content.
Will Twitter submit to an independent audit? It doubt it. Only if Twitter faces bipartisan threats against its immunity is it likely to do so.
Unfortunately, most Democrats probably are fine with Twitter’s discrimination against conservative content.
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