U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Wednesday subpoenaed Apple CEO Tim Cook and the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook- and Instagram-parent Meta Platforms, and Microsoft for documents and communications relating to free-speech issues.
Jordan and other conservatives accused the companies of suppressing conservative speech… “These subpoenas are the first step in holding Big Tech accountable,” Jordan’s office said in a statement.
Microsoft and Meta said that they had already begun producing documents. Microsoft said it was “engaged with the Committee, and committed to working in good faith.” None of the other three companies responded to a request for comment.
The subpoenas, sent to Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Andy Jassy of Amazon.com, Tim Cook of Apple, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, demand documents and communications related to alleged collusion between the government and the companies to stifle free speech.
Jordan set a March 23 deadline to turn over documents.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in January 2021:
Again, Apple’s stated reasoning for pulling Parler is fine, if applied uniformly.
Yet, Twitter, Facebook, etc. have never been suspended from Apple’s App Store.
Anyone who claims that Twitter and/or Facebook have robust content moderation in place that effectively removes harmful or dangerous content that encourages violence and illegal activity is either ignorant or lying.
MacDailyNews Note: The press release from the office of U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, verbatim:
Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed the chief executive officers of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft for documents and communications relating to the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech.
The House Judiciary Committee has repeatedly attempted to engage with the five companies since last December. Unfortunately, the companies have not adequately complied with our requests.
Congress has an important role in protecting and advancing fundamental free speech principles, including by examining how private actors coordinate with the government to to suppress First Amendment-protected speech. These subpoenas are the first step in holding Big Tech accountable.
Today’s subpoenas require Sundar Pichai, Andy Jassy, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella to turn over all requested documents and communications by March 23, 2023.
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You know, if you actually understood anything about the posts you make you might actually appear to be smarter. Private companies are free to make any rules they like when it comes to their platform. I know the right wants the ability to lie freely but that’s not how it works.
If you could actually read and comprehend*, you’d realize that your comment fails to even address what I wrote, much less refute any of it.
The leftist establishment U.S. gov’t is prevented by the constitution from curtailing free speech, so they use Big Tech to do their unconstitutional dirty work (banning “Thoughtcrime”) alongside delegitimization efforts via the corrupt corporate legacy media.
Take the Red Pill.
The U.S. leftist establishment gov’t gets Big Tech & the media to work for them by wielding the threat of “antitrust” actions which could decimate any company & against which there is no recourse against the establishment.
Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, etc. all do what they’re told.
*Seems like you attended U.S. public schools. My sympathies.
I totally addressed what you wrote. Sadly the fact that you can’t comprehend that says much about the US school system which I will guess you attended but no, I did not.
You LIE!
You deflected as usual because you cannot CHANGE or ADDRESS facts and truth.
But hey, as a Democrat talking point operative, good job you deserve a raise…
GoeB yells “You LIE” for the umpteenth laughable repeat without EVER proving it.
Sigh
Henceforth to be known as GoeBag_of_old_farts.
The current state of social media is a grave concern for the future of free speech. Those who argue that private companies have the right to control speech on their platforms are technically correct, but they miss the larger point.
Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram have become our modern-day town squares, where important discussions take place and influential voices are heard. These platforms must now take on the added responsibility of ensuring that all voices are given a fair chance to be heard.
Instead, they are using their power to silence certain viewpoints, particularly those that are conservative in nature. This is a dangerous trend that threatens the very essence of free speech.
Furthermore, it is evident that these companies are acting in coordination with government agencies to suppress speech that they deem undesirable. This is a dangerous collusion between big tech and big government, and it must be exposed and addressed.
Regardless of where you stand politically, this issue should trouble you deeply. The banning of a sitting President from Twitter should have been a wake-up call for all of us. If they can do it to him, they can do it to anyone.
We must all be angry about this. We must demand that our right to free speech be protected, and that tech platforms be held accountable for their actions. The future of our country depends on it. That sounds like a cliché but it is true.
YOU SHOULD BE ANGRY TOO, not defending this.
“Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram have become our modern-day town squares, where important discussions take place and influential voices are heard. These platforms must now take on the added responsibility of ensuring that all voices are given a fair chance to be heard.”
Must they? Says who? Says what?
Specious nonsense based on the idea that they are town squares therefore they should allow any old crap and nonsense to be heard.
That you and others say so does not make it fact. Nor does anything in law compel a company to do anything you want just because you aver a falsehood that ‘your’ rights have supremacy over the written constitution.
As usual the definition of free speech is absent because it’s likely contrary to your argument. Say I decide to promote killing certain politicians? – well within the bounds of free speech without limits. You would support this? Without limits?
Yes or No
Authoritarians currently on the left are willing to dictate what free speech is…but remember…what happens when they are not in power. You won’t feel the same then.
Free speech should NEVER be curtailed or gate-kept under any circumstances. They’re just words. Let’s put on our big boy pants should we. Words are not now or ever been violence. Our pussy generation has gone off the rails.
Delusional fatuous crap is what you get when you fail grade school.
Get yourself a new reality chip and battery.
Private entities are under no obligation to provide unfettered free speech on their products. Read the first amendment. It says congress shall make no laws infringing this right. Of course counting on a shameless turd like Gym Jordan to understand this is an exercise in futility!
Gym is really good at pandering!
Seems like you’re a product of U.S. public schools, too. It’s pitiful.
The leftist establishment U.S. gov’t is prevented by the constitution from curtailing free speech, so they use Big Tech to do their unconstitutional dirty work (banning “Thoughtcrime”) alongside delegitimization efforts via the corrupt corporate legacy media.
Take the Red Pill.
The U.S. leftist establishment gov’t gets Big Tech & the media to work for them by wielding the threat of “antitrust” actions which could decimate any company & against which there is no recourse against the establishment.
Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, etc. all do what they’re told.
what do you have against people getting an education?
You spelled indoctrination wrong
Ha! “Education” from U.S. public schools. 🤣 Good one!
“Private entities are under no obligation to provide unfettered free speech on their products.”
True, but when the Federal Government contacts Big Tech, to do the bidding of Joe Biden, the Democrats and their water carriers in the main stream media regarding censoring stories like the New York Post, true story as it turns out, Hunter Biden laptop, before the General Election for president that could have resulted in people’s decision on who to vote or not vote causes private entities to cease being private entities, but become state actors That IS collusion and that IS election interference. Time to release January 6 patriots to make room for new inhabitants, think politicians and Deep State Bureaucrats, think FBI among others, who were the true active insurrectionists in the 2020 election.
“Read the first amendment. It says congress shall make no laws infringing this right.”
And the Second Amendment say the right to bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. How’d that work out?
Those that quote the 2nd amendment should take the entire amendment to show the context of the ‘right to bear arms’. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Read in it’s entirety, it does not protect an individual’s right to bear arms, rather it states the understanding that each State in the Union, has the right to protect the security of the State from excesses of the Federal government by maintaining a ‘well regulated militia’. Most of us accept this ‘militia’ as the modern National Guard that each State has organized. This right applies to the people of each State that are members of the State’s organized militia.
One way to ‘regulate’ the militia well is for it to realize a free people have the right to defend itself from the militia when used against them in tyranny..
Consider the Mississippi Flood of 1927 when Blacks in the Greenville, MS area were forced to stay and work to maintain the levees.
So you’re saying that the US Constitution, with the 2nd Amendment, establishes the right to overthrow the government if you perceive it to be tyrannical?
Real revolutionaries don’t listen to tyrannical governments, they ignore the law, stage a revolution, and if they win take charge… illegally! So get on with it so the US Armed Forces can rid us of this stupidity!
So misinterpreted it’s mind blowing.
I would explain more about the difference between a militia and the “U.S. Armed Forces” but you have chosen to ignore words and read facts you have already chosen.
You might need to spend a little more time reading how ‘well regulated militias’ have been used for local tyranny. Or not…
Forced to stay and maintain the levies was tyrannical, so you say that the Mississippi were within their rights to shot their local officials or whoever was forcing them to do it?
“their local officials or whoever was forcing them to do it?”
Wow, you are sooooo….Democrat.
It’s an example of several times in the past, from strikes to migrant camps. Ands no, the point is not even a MILITIA always represents the people.
Now go read some history and learn.
You ought to take your own advice and read it in its entirety. It absolutely protects an individual’s right to bear arms as has been affirmed by every US Supreme Court in existence. It does not, as you laughably tried to claim, grant that right to the State. You’re parsing 21st Century perspective with 18th century meaning.
I stand by my interpretation. The Founding fathers understood that a standing army at the Federal level could impose military force on individual States that mere representatives would be at a loss to oppose. I did not in any way say that at the State level laws could not be passed for individuals to bear weapons concealed or not.or as part of a militia regulated or not.
Define ‘well regulated’.
Now do ‘separation of church and state’ and ‘right to privacy
OK? Now do ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms’.
Am I getting anywhere? Of course not.
You’re looking at all these phrases and situations through the eyes of the 20th century, ignoring their intended meanings.
@TT
Well regulated means state control of a militia which must a) formally exist b) Have criteria for participation.
Separation of Church and State:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Totally self explanatory.
Privacy:
Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The security in one’s house, papers and effects is commonly known as privacy!
@That’s why you’re Retardlicans
Funny you didn’t write the full Second Amendment,
“the right of people to keep and bear arms”
No, of course you didn’t.
The others I added because their meanings have been bastardized by the likes of you to keep people from exercising their freedom of religion and justifying abortion, which could be made legal on any states level without bypassing the true intent of the Constitution.
Sorry, Dude, you’ve been tricked and then check-mated.
But then again, you’re not very well versed so it was like shooting idiots in a barrel…..
“to do the bidding of Joe Biden”
translation… to uphold the law!
Done with chickenshit high school debate team BS. Haul them in and do whatever is necessary to stop their behavior cold. Take the sum total of all the social media platforms that arguable account for a huge amount of free speech expression on all topics of the day, and then see how the little Hitlers like that fella who was running Twitter have perverted free speech, you come to the conclusion that THEY ARE TAKING AWAY OUR RIGHT FOR FREE SPEECH, PERIOD.
Only the Republicans will put a stop to it.
It should be easy to regulated them. correctly and Constitutionally, but alas Retardlicans don’t understand the Constitution!
“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
― Thomas Paine
When such companies work in behest/upon request from govt, the 1st Amendment has become corrupted. The “private entities” are no long private. It’s quite simple in this respect.
They Should go after Youtube.
Google, Apple, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, Reddit, etc.
Twitter, thanks to Elon Musk, has shown Big Tech and Social Media for the criminality and corruption they exude.