House Republicans to look into whether Big Tech was told to censor conservatives

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• House GOP members are planning to launch a new subcommittee to investigate alleged connections between Big Tech and the Biden administration.
• Republicans have previously accused social media companies of suppressing content from conservatives.
• The panel’s chief is expected to be House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan.

Republican members of the House of Representatives are planning to launch the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate alleged communications between Big Tech and President Joe Biden’s administration.

The launch is among the many concessions that new Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to in order to win votes in his long fight to earn his position.

The subcommittee, expected to be led by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), will look into whether the executive branch pressured tech companies into censoring conservative views.

Last month, Jordan sent a series of letters to the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft. Jordan requested that they provide information on “the nature and extent of your companies’ collusion with the Biden Administration” as well as any existing or future records related to “moderation, deletion, suppression, restricting or reduced circulation of content.”

The creation of the panel follows the release of the “Twitter Files,” a series of internal files released by owner Elon Musk to select journalists.

Among the revelations was that the previous Twitter staff blocked links to an article about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election, citing violations of its policy against hacked materials. Twitter later reversed the decision and changed its policies, with the CEO at the time admitting that the action was “wrong.”

The subcommittee also plans to investigate other areas of potential political influence, such as in public health agencies and the intelligence community.

Last month, White House spokesperson Ian Sams called out the Republicans for focusing on “pointless political stunts to get themselves booked on Tucker Carlson, instead of working with @POTUS or congressional Dems to take on the issues Americans care about like tackling inflation and lowering costs.”

Source: CNBC