Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, vowed to investigate Big Tech giants for using "monopoly power" to suppress speech while praising Elon Musk for releasing the Twitter files, telling "Varney & Co." on Thursday that Silicon Valley has been abusing its power by silencing the views of those who disagree with them.

TED CRUZ: He’s [Elon Musk] come in and taken over Twitter, and it is consuming much of his day. He’s practically living at the office. And I’ve got to say the fact Elon Musk spent $48 billion to acquire Twitter is a big, big deal, and it’s a big deal for free speech. Because I have long believed the single greatest threat to free speech in America is Big Tech censorship. The giant Silicon Valley companies have been moving further and further left, and they’ve been abusing their power. They’ve been silencing the views of those who disagree with them, and I think we need to return to an environment that allows free speech, that allows everyone to speak. If you disagree with someone, great, stand up and say why you think they’re wrong. Don’t just use monopoly power to silence the views you don’t like. 

NEW ‘BIG TECH SCORECARD’ SHOWS MOST FIRMS THREATEN FREE SPEECH

Elon coming into Twitter changed the terrain fundamentally because with the Twitter files, he’s making public the internal emails, the communications from the Biden White House, from Democrat members of Congress, from the FBI, from the CIA, and it becomes clear, number one, how flimsy a basis these Big Tech companies have for banning someone, for dropping their posts, for shadow-banning them. It's on flimsy political ground. Number two, just how in bed Big Tech is with Big Government, how eager they were to be the heavy, to be the censor on behalf of Democrat politicians. The fact that Elon has gone open kimono at Twitter, it’s changed the terrain for the other players because there’s every reason to believe all of them are doing the exact same thing. So I’ve launched an investigation.