U.S. News: House Committee Sends Subpoenas To Five Tech CEOs

Why is this important for us in Lithuania? Because the current Lithuanian government is also demanding that more war propaganda be posted online from social platforms. The time will come when such actions will have to be held accountable, as is being done now in America. 

 

"WASHINGTON -- House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has sent subpoenas to the chief executives of five large U.S. tech companies, demanding information on how they moderate content on their online platforms.

The queries are part of House Republicans' plan to scrutinize communications between the Biden administration and big technology and social-media companies to probe whether they amounted to the censorship of legitimate viewpoints on issues such as Covid-19 policy that ran counter to White House policy.

The letters were sent to Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms Inc., Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc., Satya Nadella of Microsoft Corp., Tim Cook of Apple Inc., and Andy Jassy of Amazon.com Inc.

The subpoenas and their cover pages were viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

"We have started producing documents, are engaged with the committee, and committed to working in good faith," said Kate Frischmann, spokeswoman for Microsoft. Other representatives for the companies that received the subpoenas didn't respond to a request for comment.

The committee didn't demand information from Twitter Inc., which was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk last year and is seen as more friendly to conservative voices since its change in ownership.

Mr. Jordan, an Ohio Republican who chairs both the Judiciary panel and the newly created House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, asked the companies to produce documents and communications by March 23 that show any communication between them and the executive branch of the U.S. government relating to moderation, deletion, suppression or reduced circulation of content.

Republicans have claimed for years that tech companies have limited the reach of conservative voices on the platforms, preventing them from reaching voters. Democrats have denounced the effort as partisan and have defended some of the companies' decisions to filter content as a way to prevent false information about the Covid-19 vaccine or other controversial topics." [1]

1. U.S. News: House Committee Sends Subpoenas To Five Tech CEOs
Andrews, Natalie.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 16 Feb 2023: A.6.