Key Republican subpoenas Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft for info on alleged collusion with the government to suppress speech

Key Republican subpoenas Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft for info on alleged collusion with the government to suppress speech

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent to five Big Tech companies on Wednesday, demanding communications between the companies and the U.S. government to "understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech." The subpoenas, issued to the CEOs of parent , , , and , come just months after Jordan initially such information voluntarily. Jordan gave the companies a deadline of March 23 to comply with the demands. "Your response without compulsory process has been woefully inadequate," Jordan wrote in the letters. The GOP House Judiciary chair also held up the Elon Musk-run Twitter as a positive example of transparency. "In contrast to Alphabet, Twitter recently set a benchmark for how transparent Big Tech companies can be about interactions with government over censorship," Jordan wrote, with similar language in the messages to other companies. "The Twitter Files have exposed how Big Tech and the federal government have worked hand in hand in ways that undermine First Amendment principles. Numerous internal documents from Twitter reflect the weaponization of the federal government's power to censor speech online. It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which this occurred