Jordan subpoenas Big Tech CEOs over content moderation
Christopher Hutton
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed five Big Tech CEOs to get documentation regarding the companies’ content moderation and censorship, the latest effort by Republicans to hold Silicon Valley accountable for alleged censorship of conservatives.
Jordan announced on Wednesday that he was subpoenaing Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The Ohio Republican was specifically seeking communications between the five companies and federal agencies about content moderation decisions made in relation to COVID-19.
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“To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee on the Judiciary must first understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” Jordan wrote to the five CEOs.
The five CEOs have until March 23 to comply. The committee did not subpoena Twitter CEO Elon Musk, likely due to the billionaire releasing internal communications through a series of releases known as the “Twitter Files.”
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Jordan currently chairs the Judiciary Committee as well as the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which both have an interest in allegations of federal agencies trying to force tech companies to censor certain opinions.
Jordan had requested the documents but is now using legal action to place increased pressure on the companies.
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The Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general revealed details about communications between social media companies and the federal government regarding COVID-19 via a lawsuit against the Biden administration. The details were further corroborated by Musk’s Twitter Files, which included communications between the FBI and Twitter regarding the election and COVID-19 misinformation.