Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (R-N.Y.) of the House Judiciary Committee asking him to consider “formally extending an invitation” to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify in an upcoming subcommittee hearing.
According to the letter, Republicans previously received no response from Dorsey after they sent a request for more information “about Twitter’s content moderation policies” earlier in the month. Now, Jordan says it’s Chairman Nadler’s turn to reach out.
“I write to notify you that we are calling Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, to testify at this hearing and we expect that you will transmit an invitation to him promptly,” Jordan wrote.
The invite comes as the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law gears up to hear testimonies from executives in Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook about their actions “moderating content” early next week.
“As the Committee considers large technology companies and the competitive landscape, a thorough examination cannot exclude Twitter, a market leader in social media. The upcoming hearing represents a significant and unique opportunity to explore these issues with respect to Twitter as part of the Committee’s investigation,” the letter read. “We believe there is bipartisan interest to hear from Twitter about its power in the marketplace, its role in moderating content on its platform, and the causes for its recent highly publicized security breaches.”
Jordan also noted that, despite Nadler’s lack of cooperation on expanding the hearing to the full judiciary committee, Republicans “hope that you will be more receptive to our input on the hearing’s content.”
“To date, you have declined to grant Republican requests to expand the hearing to the full Committee. But even as you reject Republican views in what you have described as a “bipartisan” investigation, we believe that the Committee’s discussion would benefit from the perspective of Twitter, a market leader that would otherwise be noticeably absent from Monday’s hearing,” wrote Jordan.
Another letter sent by Rep. Jordan and copied to Chairman Nadler on Thursday said that House Republicans “received Twitter’s reply to our July 8, 2020 inquiry,” and are looking forward to his testimony early next week.
“We believe the most appropriate venue for this discussion is a public forum in front of the American people,” the letter said.
Looking forward to Monday, @jack. pic.twitter.com/H5q4dxFmBW
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) July 23, 2020
