Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is expanding his committee’s investigation into Big Tech’s collusion with the federal government to censor American speech.
On Monday, the Ohio lawmaker sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding details surrounding the company’s communication with federal officials as the Facebook founder launches his new platform alternative to Twitter, “Threads.”
“Given that Meta has censored First Amendment-protected speech as a result of government agencies’ requests and demands in the past,” Jordan wrote, “the Committee is concerned about potential First Amendment violations that have occurred or will occur on the Threads platform.”
Zuckerberg unveiled the new platform last week as a direct competitor to Twitter. Elon Musk, who took over Twitter last fall, threatened to sue Meta for misappropriation of trade secrets in its development of Threads.
Chairman Jordan warned the recent injunction handed down by a federal judge in the Western District of Louisiana barred the federal government from collaborating with Silicon Valley tech giants to implement a censorship regime. In Missouri v. Biden, Chief Judge Terry Doughty wrote that if the allegations of tech conglomerates’ participation in a federal censorship campaign prove true, the case “arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
Attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri filed the lawsuit last year claiming White House officials abused their roles to pressure major online platforms into censoring certain perspectives about Covid-19, election integrity, and the president, among other items.
“The court recognized that Meta played a central role in this censorship scheme, frequently acquiescing and catering to the government’s requests and demands,” Jordan wrote.
The Judiciary’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, also led by Jordan, has conducted a series of hearings this year on the federal censorship regime. The next hearing will be held on Thursday and will “examine the federal government’s role in censoring Americans, the Missouri v. Biden case, and Big Tech’s collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech,” according to a committee press release. Lawmakers will hear from Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Breitbart journalist Emma-Jo Morris, and Special Assistant Attorney General John D. Sauer of Louisiana.
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Meta’s CEO along with executives from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft in February over corporate collusion with federal authorities.
“The Committee’s February 15 subpoena to Meta requires, among other things, the production of material concerning Meta’s engagement with the Executive Branch and Meta’s decisions and policies regarding content moderation,” Jordan wrote Monday. “The subpoena is continuing in nature, and the instructions and definitions accompanying the subpoena make clear that documents and information related to Threads, a social media platform as described and marketed by Meta, are within the scope of the subpoena.”
