Senior Republican leadership gave the public a sneak peek into their priorities and plans for tech legislation in the next year. We are going again.
House Judiciary ranking member Jim Jordan wrote to the CEOs of the five largest tech platforms, accusing them of being out to get conservatives and colluding with the Biden administration. Tech companies commitment to freedom of speech and the Biden administration's alleged attempts to collude with tech to censor conservatives will be added to the Judiciary Committee's investigations. Less than a day before Donald Trump released his own free speech policy plan, Jordan wrote a letter.
There are strong indications of Big Tech censorship following directives or pressure from executive branch entities. The First Amendment values and protections are at risk because of the collude of Big Tech and Big Government.
Jordan demanded tech platforms give over years of documents where employees or contractors communicated with anyone involved with the executive branch regarding the topic of content moderation or content restrictions. The Republican representative demanded that tech firms give a list of all individuals in their organizations who are responsible, either currently or in the past, for developing their content moderation policies, as well as a list of employees who enforce those restrictions or bans. Third-party fact-checking organizations would be included on those lists. The companies have until December 29 to give the committee their names and communications.
House Republicans have been complaining about conservative bias in tech for a long time. Thanks to the recent elections, those concerns now have real political power. Though tech firms could largely ignore similar complaints made by Jordan back in September, the GOP's leading role in the Judiciary Committee means the tech companies will have to do a lot of paperwork to appease the new leadership. It also means that the priorities of the Democrats could be taken aback by the questions of censorship.
The letter alludes to some of the findings from the recently released batches of internal documents dubbed, " TheTwitter Files." The documents provided proof that the social media companies act at the direction of the Democrats to silence certain types of content. While most tech watchers think that the findings aren't new, the Republican party's censorship obsessed wing has clawed onto the documents to investigate and possibly regulate tech firms's ability to moderate content.
According to NeChoice Vice President and General Counsel Carl Szabo, what Jim Jordan is showing is something they have been calling for. An investigation into the amount of government pressure on businesses to promote or remove content.
Szabo was careful to say that the Trump administration tried to pressure social media companies. NetChoice, which has opposed Congressional Democrats efforts at antitrust reforms and just this week sued the state of California to block its recently passed Children's Online Safety law, counts Meta, Google, Amazon and other tech firms as "associate members." The group describes itself as working to make the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression, but opponents have criticized it for its close ties to industry.
Legislation in Congress would make it illegal for government officials to encourage social media companies to engage in political activity. Kind words for tech companies are hard to come by. Netchocie was excited about the types of legislation likely to occur now that the GOP is in control, according to Szabo.
Jordan's plans for the committee were different from those of the progressive tech critics.
The executive director of the Tech Oversight Project said that Jim Jordan needs to get his talking points straight. He would vote to rein in Big Tech if he actually wanted to. He stands with his Big Tech donors when antitrust and tech accountability legislation comes through the Judiciary Committee.
Haworth, who has played a prominent role advocating in favor of antitrust reforms and other progressive policy points aimed at reducing large tech firms' power, wasn't optimistic about meaningful tech reform coming from Republican leadership.
Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and their dog and pony shows are what we can expect from House Republicans when they take over.
Less than 24 hours after Jordan sent his letter, Trump unveiled his own "free speech plan" which he said he would work to implement if he were to win the presidency. Reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, identify and fire federal officials who engage in perceived censorship, and ban the federal government from working with nonprofits that engage in misinformation are some of the conservative talking points. Trump wants to ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as false.
The former president said that the censors should be dismantled and destroyed. Many of these plans are not clear if they are legal or not. The cries of tech censorship in Congress are not going to go away in the near future.
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