Dont Touch Me Again Man Marc Rubio

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey testifies during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing near Twitter'south transparency and accountability. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Twitter Chief Executive Officeholder Jack Dorsey testifies during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing about Twitter's transparency and accountability.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Updated at vi:34 p.m. ET

Members of Congress clashed on Wednesday with giants of the Internet world — including, in i case, a personal confrontation in the hallway.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey faced questions Wednesday afternoon from a House committee amid criticism from Republicans that Big Tech suppresses conservatives online.

And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tussled with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after Jones confronted and touched him outside a Senate intelligence committee hearing.

Jones interrupted Rubio as he was being interviewed by a scrum of reporters outside a room where the intelligence committee was hearing from Dorsey and Facebook Master Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Jones says Democrats are behind the broader efforts in the tech world to censor programming in which he spouts a range of debunked theories. He says Republicans like Rubio are pretending the unfair censorship "doesn't be."

Alex Jones, radio host, conspiracy theorist and creator of the website Infowars, speaks to members of the media outside a Senate intelligence commission hearing on Wed. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

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Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Alex Jones, radio host, conspiracy theorist and creator of the website Infowars, speaks to members of the media exterior a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Wednesday.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Wednesday, equally Rubio was answering questions from journalists, Jones raised his voice to phone call the senator a "frat male child" and said he was a "snake," before patronizingly patting him on his shoulder.

A security officer warned Jones not to touch Rubio before the senator turned to him.

"Hey, don't touch me again, man," Rubio said. "I'm asking yous not to touch me."

"Well, I just patted yous nicely," Jones said.

"Well, I don't want to be touched — I don't know who y'all are," Rubio said.

Jones asked if he was going to be arrested, to which Rubio responded: "You're not going to get arrested, man. You lot're non going to get arrested. I'll take care of you myself."

Jones seemed to relish in the confrontation, asking if Rubio was going to beat him upwardly.

"I didn't say that," Rubio said.

Rubio and then started laughing and turned away as Jones called him a "little gangster thug." Jones turned to a person filming the interaction and said "Rubio just threatened to physically take care of me."

Rubio answered 1 more than reporter'southward question, as Jones yelled adjacent to him, before leaving the scrum.

Throughout the interaction, Rubio repeatedly claimed he didn't know who Jones was and said he didn't read his website.

Criticism about "bias"

Jones is at the center of a political dispute over liberty of oral communication that continues playing out in Congress this week. Facebook, YouTube, Apple and Spotify have all made moves in contempo months to remove content posted by Jones.

"At a time when these same platforms have said that they volition try to winnow out faux news, hoax news, they've been hard pressed to explain why they've immune Jones to go along to operate," as NPR's David Folkenflik said last month.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz invoked a warning associated with the early on days of the Holocaust in suggesting that what he called the suppression of Jones was the beginning of a slippery gradient toward the suppression of other political speech communication.

Republicans, conservatives and President Trump have focused their comments on other examples of what they telephone call suppression of conservative voices by Large Tech.

Watch The Hearing With Twitter's CEO

They point to "shadow-banning" on Twitter that they say disproportionately silences conservatives and to Facebook's suspension of certain accounts, including those of Trump supporters Diamond and Silk.

The tech companies deny any systemic bias, just on Wednesday afternoon, Dorsey was put on the defensive by House Republicans. They echoed the complaints past Trump that he and other people on the political right are treated unfairly.

"We wouldn't be having this discussion if there wasn't a general agreement that your company has discriminated against conservatives," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

Dorsey alive-tweeted his opening statement and explicitly denied any allegation of political selectivity by his company.

"Looking at the data, we analyzed tweets sent by all members of the House and Senate, and found no statistically significant difference between the number of times a tweet by a Democrat is viewed versus a Republican, even later on our ranking and filtering of tweets has been applied," Dorsey said.

I want to showtime by making something clear: nosotros don't consider political viewpoints, perspectives, or party affiliation in any of our policies or enforcement decisions. Period. Impartiality is our guiding principle. Let me explain why.

— jack⚡️ (@jack) September 5, 2018

Democrats railed against Republicans for what they called political blowhard and distracting from existent issues with Twitter and other social media companies. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., called the bias issue a "deception," while Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., called information technology a "load of crap."

"President Trump and many Republicans take peddled conspiracy theories most Twitter and other social media platforms to whip up their base and fundraise," said New Bailiwick of jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the Democratic ranking member on the committee.

In that location is likely to exist more investigation and public comment: Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited the Senate hearing on Wed in announcing that he intends to come across with state attorneys general to discuss bias.

Big Tech is caught between living up to its professed commitments to deliver open up platforms and pressure from Congress to fissure downwards on the apportionment of imitation data — only do so in a measured fashion that doesn't produce unintended consequences.

"I want to starting time by making something articulate: We don't consider political viewpoints, perspectives, or party affiliation in whatever of our policies or enforcement decisions. Period," Dorsey said Wednesday. "Impartiality is our guiding principle."

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/05/644629018/marco-rubio-clashes-in-capitol-with-alex-jones-i-ll-take-care-of-you-myself

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