Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and two other Republican House lawmakers on Tuesday demanded the Biden White House hand over its correspondence allegedly pressuring Big Tech to increase online censorship.
House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member McMorris Rodgers, Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta (R-OH), and Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) signed the letter insisting the Biden administration reveal details of its reported collusion with Big Tech to censor certain COVID-19-related content.
The letter asked for information on the White House’s “pressure” on Big Tech to censor posts and accounts criticizing government officials and government narratives on COVID-19. The letter requested information pertaining to meetings between Big Tech executives and government officials, censorship of Twitter and Facebook users and social media content deemed “misinformation” or “disinformation.”
McMorris Rodgers said that the reported efforts by the Biden administration to collude with Big Tech companies were “unconstitutional and an affront to the First Amendment” in a press release Tuesday.
“Energy and Commerce Republicans want to ensure the White House is completely transparent with Americans about how they and Big Tech are actively working to silence people online,” McMorris Rodgers said in the press release.
The White House admitted that it flagged content for censorship and even arranged regular meetings with Big Tech platforms to discuss censorship targets, according to the press release.
“Administration officials have previously described conservative users as their political enemies, and we have previously expressed our concern that the administration’s recent actions could lead private companies to censor conservatives due to increased White House pressure,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
The House GOP members further noted in the letter that Twitter employees met several times with top Biden officials regarding speech of “a conservative user” on the platform. Recently released information indicates that a specific individual was targeted by the officials, that “Twitter employees were aware of pressure from the White House official, and the censorship of the individual followed discussions between the White House official and Twitter.”
This alleged targeting of a conservative user raises “serious questions” about the pressure the Biden administration applies to companies to censor speech “that you are prohibited from restricting under the First Amendment,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
The bombshell allegations referenced in the letter were revealed in the Louisiana and Missouri lawsuit concerning Big Tech-government collusion to censor during the COVID-19 pandemic, which cited original research from Media Research Center and its unique CensorTrack database to support its case.
The White House did not respond to an MRC Free Speech America request for comment.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
