House GOP subpoenas Big Tech companies over content moderation decisions

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed executives from Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Google parent company Alphabet for information about their communication with the government Wednesday, ramping up House Republicans’ push to prioritize content moderation battles this Congress. 

“We just subpoenaed Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple regarding Big Tech’s reported collusion with the federal government,” Jordan wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

“Step one towards accountability,” he added.

The subpoenas follow letters Jordan sent to the five companies in December as he prepared to take the reins as chairman with the GOP’s newly secured majority in the House. Judiciary Committee Republicans said the companies have not “adequately complied with our requests.” 

The subpoena ask the companies’ CEOs — Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella — to turn over “documents and communications relating to the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech” by March 23, according to the committee.

A Microsoft spokesperson said, “We have started producing documents, are engaged with the Committee, and committed to working in good faith.”

And spokesperson for Meta said, “We have already begun producing documents in response to the committee’s requests and will continue to do so moving forward.

Spokespeople for Amazon, Apple and Alphabet did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Jordan and his GOP allies have accused tech companies of suppressing First Amendment-protected free speech through coordination with the government to take down content. 

At a hearing last week, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Republicans slammed former Twitter employees over similar allegations based on content moderation decisions. Democrats and the panel of former Twitter employees countered that the First Amendment protects private companies making their own content moderation decisions, and the Democrats accused the Republicans of using the hearing as a distracting political stunt. 

The hearing last week was largely based around Twitter’s handling of decisions to limit the spread of a New York Post story about President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. But Republicans have been railing against social media companies broadly over allegations that they are censoring conservative content, citing posts and accounts that are removed when they violate social media companies’ own policies.