Senate Committee Votes To Subpoena Zuckerberg, Dorsey

The US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to authorise its chairman to issue subpoenas that would force the chief executives of Facebook and Twitter to testify at a hearing on what the panel's Republicans described as censorship.

The vote to subpoena Zuckerberg and Dorsey comes in the wake of Facebook's and Twitter's decision to limit the spread of a controversial New York Post article.

Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noted that Democrats on the committee asked him to delay the vote to issue the subpoenas, but he said he chose to move forward anyway.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican on both the commerce and judiciary committees, told reporters this week that he was determined to see Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Dorsey testify before Election Day.

Joe and Hunter Biden have been heavily criticised by President Donald Trump for improperly using influence in their foreign relations after the connection between Hunter Biden and a major Ukrainian natural gas company hit the headlines in September. "Longer term, I think the results of the election will shape the policy discussion next Congress more than any one hearing".

The hearings come just over a week after Dorsey apologized after Twitter blocked a story about Joe Biden and his dealings in Ukraine leading to accusations of censorship and election interference. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we're blocking: unacceptable, ' he said. "Per the story, the emails came off a copy of a hard drive obtained by Rudy Giuliani; original hard drive was left at a DE computer fix shop", he explained.

'The images contained in the articles include personal and private information - like email addresses and phone numbers - which violate our rules, ' the company stated.

'Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren't a violation of this policy.

Any other recent determinations to temporarily reduce distribution of material pending factchecker review and/or block and mark material as potentially unsafe.

Facebook and Twitter faced widespread criticism earlier this month after each social media platform took steps to slow the spread of the New York Post's report on emails taken a laptop that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden.

Facebook confirmed that Mr Zuckerberg would appear, but declined further comment.