Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee led by Jim Jordan have subpoenaed several big tech companies, seeking to uncover documents that, they say, have information on the "Foreign Censorship of American Speech."
Concretely, Republicans sent letters to 8 companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Rumble, TikTok and X. It argues that the committee is "conducting oversight of how and to what extent foreign laws, regulations, and judicial orders compel, coerce, or influence companies to censor speech in the United States."
To back their claim they refer to previous statements from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, which "admitted that it was wrong to bow to the Biden-Harris Administration's demands" and "publicly committed to restoring free speech on its platforms, and reformed its policies."
Now, they say, "a new threat to Americans' free expression has emerged in the form of foreign laws, regulations, and judicial orders that require or lead American companies to limit what content can be viewed on their platforms in the United States."
"To protect Americans' civil liberties, the Committee must investigate the extent and nature of these foreign censorship efforts and their effect on constitutionally protected speech at home," the letter adds. To illustrate their point they cite laws in the United Kingdom, the European Union and Brazil, as well as Australia and Canada.
For that reason they are asking for communications between the companies and foreign governments regarding the companies' "compliance with foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders, or other government-initiated efforts," as well as internal communications discussing "communications from foreign governments."
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