Ted Cruz ist in Deutschland nicht so bekannt. Als ich vor zwei Jahren in den USA war und die Vorwahlen bei den Republikanern verfolgte, hoffte ich, dass nicht Trump, sondern der Texaner Ted Cruz gewinnen würde. Trump machte Cruz jedoch mit unfairen Mitteln fertig und behauptete wahrheitswidrig, dessen Vater sei in die Ermordung von John F. Kennedy verstrickt gewesen.

Bei der Anhörung gestern im Senat stellte Ted Cruz die besten Fragen und brachte Zuckerberg zum Schwitzen – hier das Video (Link).

Terminator des Unguten

Mark Zuckerberg: „… to make sure those tools are used for good“

Cruz machte klar, was es heißt, wenn Zuckerberg sagt: „Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I’m committed to getting it right.“

Ich habe Zuckerberg als großen Unternehmer bewundert. Facebook halte ich immer noch für eine tolle Erfindung. Aber Facebook sollte bei dem bleiben, als was es ursprünglich antrat: eine neutrale Plattform, auf der Menschen kommunizieren. Stattdessen entwickelt es sich in Richtung einer linken Zensurbehörde der politischen Korrektheit.

Fragen von Cruz und Zuckerbergs Antworten

Cruz: „Mr. Zuckerberg, I will say there are a great many Americans, who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship. There have been numerous instances with Facebook. In May of 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook had purposefully and routinely suppressed conservative stories from trending news, including stories about CPAC, including stories about Mitt Romney, including stories about the Lois Lerner IRS scandal, including stories about Glenn Beck. In addition to that, Facebook has initially shut down the ‘Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day‘ page, has blocked a post of a Fox News reporter, has blocked over two dozen Catholic pages, and most recently, blocked Trump supporters Diamond and Silk’s page with 1.2 million Facebook followers, after determining their content and brand were, ‘unsafe to the community.‘ To a great many Americans, that appears to be a pervasive pattern of political bias. Do you agree with that assessment?“

Zuckerberg: „Senator, let me say a few things about this,“ Zuckerberg began. „First, I understand where that concern is coming from because Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left-leaning place. And this is actually a concern that I have and that I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don’t have any bias in the work that we do, and I think it is a fair concern that people would at least wonder about.“

Cruz: „In your testimony, you say that you have 15,000 to 20,000 people working on security and content review. Do you know the political orientation of those 15,000 to 20,000 people engaged in content review?“

Zuckerberg: „No, Senator. We do not generally ask people about their political orientation when they’re joining the company.“

Sen. Ted Cruz provided the first truly difficult line of questioning for Zuckerberg. Zuck is going to have to offer more than just his personal assurances if he wants conservatives to trust that Facebook will not censor their content. https://t.co/AwE8flW4H4

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) April 10, 2018