Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to big tech companies demanding documents relating to their censorship practices.
Jordan wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Alphabeth CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella:
Big Tech is out to get conservatives, and is increasingly willing to undermine First Amendment values by complying with the Biden Administration’s directives that suppress freedom of speech online. This approach undermines fundamental American principles and allows powerful government actors to silence political opponents and stifle opposing viewpoints. Publicly available information suggests that your companies’ treatment of certain speakers and content may stem from government directives or guidance designed to suppress dissenting views. Therefore, we write to request more information about the nature and extent of your companies’ collusion with the Biden Administration.
Big Tech’s role in shaping national and international public discourse today is well-known. In some cases, Big Tech’s “heavy-handed censorship” has been “use[d] to silence prominent voices” and to “stifle views that disagree with the prevailing progressive consensus.”
Because of Big Tech’s wide reach, it can serve as a powerful and effective partisan arm of the “woke speech police.” Although the full extent of Big Tech’s collusion with the Biden Administration is unknown, there are prominent examples and strong indications of Big Tech censorship following directives or pressure from executive branch entities. These examples raise serious concerns about how and why tech companies suppress, silence, or reduce the reach of certain political speech and speakers. The collusion of Big Tech and Big Government to advance censorship undeniably undermines liberty and jeopardizes our country’s First Amendment values and protections.
Confronting big tech was a core platform of House Republicans’ Commitment to America agenda, and Jordan, as the incoming chair of the Judiciary Committee, can subpoena big tech executives regarding their censorship practices.
