The Republican offensive against Joe Biden continues. Silicon Valley bosses were subpoenaed on Wednesday February 15 to produce documents on their moderation of content by Republicans. These elected officials want to determine whether they acted in concert with the government to restrict the freedom of expression of the conservatives, an unproven conspiracy theory.
The Republican-dominated House Judiciary Committee has demanded the CEOs of Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft produce numerous documents, including communications with the White House related to content moderation before the 23rd March.
“To develop effective legislation […] the Judiciary Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch has coerced and colluded with corporations and other intermediaries to censor speech,” read the letters delivered by the Republican lawmaker from Ohio. Jim Jordan to CEOs, like report it CNN as well as CBS News.
The Judiciary Committee “has repeatedly tried to engage the five companies since last December. Unfortunately, these companies have not responded adequately to our requests,” she said in a statement. “Congress has an important role to play in protecting and promoting fundamental principles of free speech, including examining how private actors work with government to suppress speech protected by the First Amendment ( Editor’s note: of the American Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression)”, she adds.
In press releases, Microsoft and Meta for their part claimed to have already provided the required documents and to cooperate with the commission. Microsoft “is committed to working in good faith” with the commission, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNN. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told CNN that the company has “already begun producing documents in response to the commission’s requests and will continue to do so in the future.”
These assignments are part of a broader offensive by elected Republicans, masters of the lower house since January 2023, targeting Joe Biden, Silicon Valley, American intelligence and the progressive, so-called “woke” ideology of federal agencies.
This fight is led in particular by the elected Republican Jim Jordan, loyal lieutenant of ex-President Donald Trump, chairman of the Judiciary Committee since January 2023. Jim Jordan has made monitoring the alleged censorship practices of large technology companies his priority. absolute.
In December 2022, Jim Jordan already alleged that “Big Tech” is “increasingly willing to undermine First Amendment values by complying with Biden administration directives that suppress free speech online”, notes CNN.
During a hearing, the House Investigations Committee last week grilled three former Twitter executives over the company’s decision, overturned in 2021, to limit the spread of an article by the New York Post who criticized the Democratic President’s son, Hunter Biden.
The hard right elected officials wanted to establish that social networks have shown censorship under pressure from the Democrats. However, they did not obtain any evidence supporting them. Conversely, witnesses reported Republican pressure to remove certain content. The Trump administration had pushed for Twitter to remove an insulting post by model Chrissy Teigen, according to social network officials.
