Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, announced yesterday that he had subpoenaed five Big Tech CEOs from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple on the nature of their reported collusion with the federal government. Jordan added in his tweet that this was “Step one towards accountability.” This action comes after years of such platforms censoring conservative and other dissent voices as well as revelations that some of this censorship was by government request.
We just subpoenaed Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple regarding Big Tech’s reported collusion with the federal government.
Step one towards accountability.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 15, 2023
In a House Judiciary Committee press release about the subpoenas, the lawmakers noted that this act came after repeated attempts by the committee “to engage with the five companies since last December. Unfortunately, the companies have not adequately complied with our requests.”
Breitbart reviewed the subpoenas and wrote, “They demand the CEOs to produce by March 23 any and all documents and communications between their respective companies and the executive branch of the U.S. government that relate to the companies’ ‘moderation, deletion, suppression, restricting, or reduced circulation of content.'” Breitbart further revealed that ‘The February 6 letters, obtained by Breitbart News, sought the material now being subpoenaed “immediately.” They noted that although “conversations” between congressional staff and the companies had occurred as a result of the prior requests, the companies still had “not made any substantial steps toward compliance.’”
Breitbart writes that Jordan had cover letters to the subpoenas of the Big Tech CEOs which explained why he thought it was of value to subpoena them. He argues that this effort of tackling the relationship between Big Tech and Big Government was “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.”
In this cover letter, Jordan also pointed to Elon Musk as a role model of transparency on this matter. He further declared that it was due to his forthrightness in providing internal documents from Twitter that highlighted the problematic character of the company’s relationship with the government which explains why Musk was excluded from being targeted with a similar subpoena.
Government censorship of the press is nothing new in American history. The history of this censorship has definitively shown that government is not a neutral arbiter of truth and will exploit such censorship to misinform the public. There is little doubt that Jordan’s review of Big Tech collusion with the government will show the same.
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