Five Silicon Valley giants were subpoenaed on Wednesday (February 15th) to produce documents about their content moderation by Republican lawmakers wishing to determine whether they acted in concert with the government to restrict conservatives’ freedom of expression, a theory of the unproven conspiracy.
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, by March.
The commission “has repeatedly tried to engage the five companies since last December. Unfortunately, these companies did not adequately respond to our queries,” 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 ( of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech),” she adds.
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Microsoft and Meta said for their part that they had already provided the required documents and cooperated with the commission in press releases. This fight is led in particular by the elected Republican Jim Jordan, loyal lieutenant of former President Donald Trump, at the head of the Judiciary Committee.
The House Investigations Committee last week grilled Twitter officials over the company’s decision, reversed in 2021, to limit the spread of a New York Post article that criticized the Democratic President’s son, Hunter Biden .
Hard-right lawmakers wanted to establish that social media censored under pressure from Democrats, but they got no evidence to back them up, with witnesses reporting, conversely, Republican pressure to remove some content.
The Trump administration had pushed for Twitter to remove an insulting post by model Chrissy Teigen, according to social network officials.
