Republican Rep. Jim Jordan is subpoenaing Alphabet, demanding the company hands over documents containing communications between the company and the Biden administration, claiming it is conducting an investigation on how "and to what extent the executive branch coerced or colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor lawful speech."
In a letter addressed at the company's CEo, Sundar Pichai, Jordan said the Judiciary Committee's oversight "uncovered how the Biden-Harris Administration repeatedly pressured online platforms (...) to censor Americans directly and by proxy." He added that as a result Meta "admitted that it was wrong to bow to the Biden-Harris Administration's demands" and committed to reform its policies.
However, the letter adds, Alphabet "has not similarly disavowed the Biden-Harris Administration's attempts to censor speech," and is seeking to "fully understand the extent and nature of the Biden-Harris Administration's censorship efforts."
"The Committee's oversight has revealed that YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was a direct participant in the federal government's censorship regime. In particular, the Committee obtained documents showing that the federal government successfully pressured YouTube to censor certain lawful content, including content that did not violate YouTube's content moderation policies," the subpoena.
Consequently, it is requesting communications between the company and the executive branch, as well as internal communications discussing communications with the executive branch and with third parties that "may have been working with the executive branch."
Jordan had already gone after YouTube last year over what he claimed was censorship of former president Donald Trump's recent interview with podcast host Joe Rogan. He also requested answers regarding "documents showing that the federal government successfully pressured YouTube" to "censor certain content, including content that did not violate YouTube's content moderation policies."
"YouTube appears to have censored a video in which FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen, a witness before the Select Subcommittee, detailed serious misconduct at the FBI and expressed his deeply held religious beliefs," Jordan said, calling the alleged conduct part of a "pattern of anti-conservative political bias," he said back then.
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