Ted Cruz Launches New Senate Probe, Demands Answer From Big Tech Chiefs

Senator Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) launched a Senate probe into Big Tech via the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST).

Cruz wrote four letters asking for information regarding the algorithms of their platforms to the chief officers at TikTok Meta, Twitter, Google and Meta.

Cruz, the CST Committee’s ranking member, highlighted each platform’s use proprietary algorithms that decide what type of content is allowed to users’ social media feeds.

“As you are well aware, social media companies rely on algorithms to not only moderate content, but also to surface personalized recommendations to users,” Cruz said.

He noted the tangible role these algorithms play in politics. “Recommendation systems play an increasingly ubiquitous role in selecting content for individual consumption, including by promoting some content, using product design elements to prominently display recommendations, and downranking or filtering disfavored content and accounts.”

Cruz wrote later in the letters “In a world where seven out of ten Americans receive their political news from social media, the manner in which content is filtered through recommendation systems has an undeniable effect on what Americans see, think, and ultimately believe.”

“At their best,” Cruz added, “recommendations help users discover interesting or relevant content that they might not otherwise find on a platform.”

So social media algorithms can be used to connect people with artists, groups and events.

Cruz stated that these algorithms can lead to addiction, a pathway to harmful or obscene material, and can even be used for political ends.

“[R]ecommendation systems can also fuel platform addiction by feeding users an essentially infinite stream of content,” Cruz added that these algorithms are also available in the software “can be especially dangerous when recommendations make it easier for vulnerable users, especially teenagers, to find objectively harmful content, such as content that promotes eating disorders and self-harm.”

The Senate heard whistleblower testimony by a former employee of Meta. This revealed how social media can help users and young kids find content such as the ones Cruz referred to.

Twitter Files

Cruz also cited “Twitter files,” A treasure trove of documents was released by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter. The documents revealed how Twitter worked with the federal governments to suppress certain ideas or stories.

Cruz commented on Fox News that the Twitter files will be included in the investigation.

This suppression was often done using the Cruz algorithms, which can detect content that tech executives want to restrict. You can do this by removing the content or suspending an account or user. “shadow banning,” It is an undercover way of limiting the reach of certain posts.

“Taken as a whole, these systems have an outsized impact—whether positive or negative—on the reach of content and accounts and, by extension, speech,” Cruz wrote.

Cruz shared arguments from some critics, who said that such restrictions on the content’s reach don’t entail censorship and First Amendment concerns.

This article is indicative of the attitude of WIRED. A critic of GOP attitudes towards Big Tech stated that: “Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of reach.”

Cruz rejected this idea, declaring: “This kind of soft censorship is still censorship. Likewise, manual and algorithmic interventions that reduce the reach of content—including filtering content from recommendations—are analogous to other interventions, such as content removals, in that they still restrict the poster’s legitimate speech.”

Cruz cited the example of the targeted suppression in the 2020 New York Post article detailing the findings from the laptop that contained the information about Joe Biden’s child Hunter Biden. The contents of the laptop raised ethical concerns for the Bidens. Photos on the laptop showed the president’s son in lingerie with an underage girl; others show the younger Biden taking crack cocaine.

Section 230

Cruz used the letter to resolve a dispute about Big Tech companies’ obligations and privileges.

Criminal laws against libel will apply to most media curators. A person or company can be held legally responsible for publishing untrue or harmful information under the libel laws.

Online media platforms are exempted from the Communications Decency Act of 1996 section 230, provided they don’t curate content.

The exact definition is “curation,” However, this is not disputed.

Liberal Big Tech supporters often claim that policies to protect purportedly harmful material and their removal do not constitute Big Tech policy. “curation.” Conservatives claim that social media platforms’ user base is liberal and that conservative content is removed more often or censored on them. Do Act as censors

The Internet was still in its infancy when the bill was passed. Since then, it has been seamlessly integrated into many people’s daily lives. Many people have called for a reexamination of 1996 legislation that is now almost 30 years old.

Cruz is not the only Republican to investigate Big Tech.

Republicans currently lead a series investigations into issues ranging in scope from Big Tech to possible influence-peddling by President Joe Biden’s son’s business dealings.

In an ongoing investigation into the weaponization of the Federal Government, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Big Tech executives on Feb. 15.

James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee (Republican from Kentucky), is also investigating Big Tech in his own investigation.