Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Twitter Government Republicans Social Networks The Internet United States

Senator Ted Cruz Calls For Criminal Investigation of Twitter (axios.com) 161

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in a letter Friday to the Justice and Treasury departments, is calling for a criminal investigation of Twitter over allegations the company is violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Twitter is already under fire from President Trump for adding fact checks and a warning label, respectively, to misleading and incendiary tweets he made in recent days. Cruz's letter adds another dimension to the tech company's woes in Washington.

Twitter allows Iranian leaders to maintain accounts on its service, and Cruz is asking Attorney General Bill Barr and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to probe whether that violates U.S. sanctions prohibiting American companies from providing goods or services to the country's top officials. "I believe that the primary goal of (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) and sanctions law should be to change the behavior of designated individuals and regimes, not American companies," Cruz wrote."But when a company willfully and openly violates the law after receiving formal notice that it is unlawfully supporting designated individuals, the federal government should take action."
In February, Cruz led a letter from Republican senators to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, calling on the company to ban Iranian leaders from the site for the same reasons. Twitter responded in April, arguing that its service is exempt from the sanctions, and that the public conversation on the platform is critically important during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Fundamental values of openness, free expression, public accountability, and mutual understanding matter now more than ever," Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's legal, public policy & trust and safety lead, wrote. "Regardless of the political agenda of a particular nation state, to deny our service to their leaders at a time like this would be antithetical to the purpose of our company, which is to serve the global public conversation."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Senator Ted Cruz Calls For Criminal Investigation of Twitter

Comments Filter:
  • by haus ( 129916 ) on Friday May 29, 2020 @08:02PM (#60123208) Journal

    He has stood by as Trump has insulted him, his father and his wife, and he continues to carry water for the man.

    What a sad, pathetic man.

    • Trump can't really do much to him other than tweet at him and call him names. It's not a spine he lacks, it's any form of integrity or self respect.

    • Trump turns so many republican leaders into Reek.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29, 2020 @08:12PM (#60123240)

    so fucking tired of america. fuck off and die. youre putting me on the side of fucking twitter.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      It's just political theater, all bark and no bite. It won't fly in court. Checks and balances usually mostly work.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The mask has really slipped now, hasn't it? Sanctions designed to trip up their enemies and provide an excuse to prosecute them.

  • by jaa101 ( 627731 ) on Friday May 29, 2020 @08:18PM (#60123256)

    If they were taking Iranian advertising that would be economic activity and a clear violation. Just allowing free accounts is no different economically from the media publishing their own, unpaid interviews with Iranians. Is Cruz really saying that’s illegal?

    • by orlanz ( 882574 )

      ...allowing free accounts...

      This gets iffy if you are allowing actual government members to have accounts. Worse if said bodies are declaring them as official accounts. Just ask Instagram earlier this year. Few care if normal Iranian citizens access or use Twitter unless a good amount of commerce is facilitated.

      As much as I dislike spineless Ted, I don't think Twitter will come out on top here. I doubt they would have in any Republican or even some Democratic administrations. Twitter is a public company, and you aren't allowed t

  • If a country does not allow its own people to access western social media, the evil dictators should also not be allowed.

  • by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Friday May 29, 2020 @08:26PM (#60123294)

    https://www.treasury.gov/resou... [treasury.gov]

    Section 784 would include Twitter

    Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are authorized to engage in transactions that establish mechanisms to provide commercial telecommunications services in Cuba or linking third countries and Cuba. Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are also authorized to engage in telecommunications-related transactions, including payment related to the provision of telecommunications involving Cuba or provided to Cuban individuals. Pursuant to 31 CFR 515.542, U.S. persons may, for example, purchase calling cards for people to use in Cuba or pay the bills of such people directly to a telecommunications operator located in Cuba, such as ETECSA. These steps to facilitate improved access to telecommunications services for Cubans and increased international connections are intended to increase the ability of the Cuban people to communicate freely and to better provide for efficient and adequate telecommunications services between the United States and Cuba.

    The CACR define telecommunications services to include data, telephone, telegraph, internet connectivity, radio, television, news wire feeds, and similar services, regardless of medium of transmission, including transmission by satellite. For a complete description of what this general license authorizes and the restrictions that apply, see 31 CFR 515.542. [09-06-2019]

  • by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Friday May 29, 2020 @09:25PM (#60123496)

    Ban it, and humanity will be better for it.

  • ... individuals even feasible for an internet service that offers its services around the globe?
  • That's strange, Cruz didn't want to do anything against Twitter when Trump was inciting violence.
    • How is that strange at all? He was pro-Twitter when Twitter was useful to his party and he is anti-Twitter when it is not! People like things that benefit them. Now guys like Cruz who are party-before-principles look like idiots because they try to spin their selfish interest as having some sort of basis in conviction about right and wrong. But liking things that benefit you is a normal part of life.
      • He was pro-twitter, when it allowed him to bypass the media and talk to the people directly. Now he is against it because of regulatory capture of twitter by the Democrats, who threaten 230 if twitter does not censor.

        Facebook chooses not to, and is roundly attacked around here.

  • That's a real nice Twitter you have there. It'd be a real shame if something happened to it.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • -- Twitter allows Iranian leaders to maintain accounts on its service, and Cruz is asking ... to probe whether that violates U.S. sanctions prohibiting American companies from providing goods or services to the country's top officials.

    -- "But when a company willfully and openly violates the law after receiving formal notice that it is unlawfully supporting designated individuals, the federal government should take action."

    So did they get a letter saying they were breaking the law before any check was done t

...though his invention worked superbly -- his theory was a crock of sewage from beginning to end. -- Vernor Vinge, "The Peace War"

Working...