Analysis: Ted Cruz wants to punish the social media giant for hosting sanctioned officials. The consequences for free speech are considerable
co-directs the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.a criminal investigation into the social media platform for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. Cruz does not argue that Twitter sold prohibited goods to Iran or somehow helped the Iranian government gain access to the international financial system. Nor does he contend that Twitter has hosted content promoting terrorism. Rather, the Texas Republican argues that Twitter is violating U.S.
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the primary law that the executive branch uses to impose and enforceSanctions have long been designed to cut off adversaries’ access to economic resources. In the 1950s and 1960s, however, the U.S. also used sanctions and other regulations to limit the importation of magazines and other textual material from mainland China and Vietnam.
The Trump administration already has taken an expansive view of its authority to use sanctions to regulate speech. In November 2019, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against a U.S. citizen who allegedly violated sanctions when he traveled to North Korea to speak at a conference on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. DOJ claimed that the defendant, by virtue of his presentation, had “provided highly technical information to North Korea.
The real question, though, is not whether Twitter is making the right choice in hosting these officials’ platforms, but whether the company violated economic sanctions by doing so. Imagine the consequences if the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department were to successfully contend that Twitter broke the law by allowing Iran’s foreign minister to use its platform to express Iranian government views. Could the Justice Department then investigate a U.S.
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