Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are summoned by a GOP-led House committee on content moderation

The CEOs of major tech companies have been subpoenaed by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for documents pertaining to their content moderation policies, including records of correspondence with the White House regarding free speech issues. This is the latest attempt by the GOP to demonstrate that the companies colluded with the Biden Administration to stifle free speech.

Jordan requested all documents that demonstrate the companies' communications with the White House regarding content moderation decisions in a letter to Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, Amazon's Andy Jassy, Apple's Tim Cook, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, according to multiple reports. The letter also requests details on the personnel in charge of making judgments regarding content moderation at the corporations, according to The Wall Street Journal.

After making a similar demand in December, when the committee was still under Democratic control, Jordan utilized his newly acquired subpoena power in his capacity as committee chair to make a legal demand for the materials.

Although Meta informed The Wall Street Journal that it has already begun supplying records and will continue to do so moving ahead, Microsoft said "in a statement responding to the subpoena that it is committed to cooperating in good faith with the committee."

KEY QUOTE

Jordan reportedly wrote in the subpoena that the committee "must first understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech," outlining the objective of potential new legislation governing the relationship between the government and Big Tech.

BACKGROUND

After a stormy meeting recently, the House Oversight Committee summoned four former Twitter workers to appear in connection with a related investigation. Right-wing Congressmen who had previously been barred from the platform challenged the staff members for allegedly stifling coverage of the Hunter Biden story. Republicans on the committee also emphasized their assertions that the FBI requested the corporation erase specific information (an allegation the Twitter employees firmly denied). The Trump Administration once called Twitter for the same reason, specifically to remove a negative Tweet about the president by celebrity Chrissy Teigen, according to Anika Collier Navaroli, the witness for Democrats on the committee, who made the revelation during the hearing.

IMPRESSIVE FACT

The owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, has become something of a hero to Republicans as his own political views have swung to the right, but the committee did not request records from him. When Musk disclosed the "Twitter Files" in December, which detailed internal discussions regarding the Hunter Biden article, he supported Republican claims that the item had been unfairly suppressed. Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist." Employees later claimed that the corporation made a mistake when it opted to delete it out of concern that it was the result of a Russian hacking scheme and violated its anti-hacking policy. In apparent reference to the Twitter Files, Jordan said in his letter issuing "the subpoena that Twitter was left out because it recently set a benchmark for how transparent Big Tech companies can be about interactions with government over censorship."

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