House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has subpoenaed tech industry leaders to find out whether they colluded to suppress free speech. Apple CEO Tim Cook will also be questioned.
The committee is requesting documents and interviews with the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft to find out whether the companies have worked with the government to censor content on their platforms. The committee said it has repeatedly tried to work with the companies since December but they have not "responded adequately to the requests."
Have Apple and Co. suppressed freedom of expression?
The subpoenas require Sundar Pichai, Andy Jassy, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckberg and Satya Nadella to produce all requested documents and communications by March 23, 2023. Loud The Wall Street Journal is investigating whether the companies have censored opinions on issues such as COVID-19 policy that do not align with White House policy. However, in November, Apple's CEO met with GOP lawmakers, including Jim Jordan of Ohio, Darrel Issa of California and Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington. At the time, it was not clear what was on the agenda. Most notably, the committee did not request information from Twitter CEO Elon Musk, even though Twitter is a popular social network. However, Jordan has publicly expressed support for Musk in the past.
Apple never considered removing Twitter from the App Store
Many Republicans have claimed that Big Tech companies are limiting the speech of conservatives on their platforms and suppressing their views on various issues. For example, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote an open letter to Cook accusing Apple of helping China suppress free speech. It states:
Under your leadership, Apple has repeatedly supported the Chinese Communist Party in controlling and suppressing the basic human rights of the Chinese people. At the same time, Apple appears to be importing this model of speech control to the United States: reports suggest that your company may remove Twitter from the App Store as a consequence of the free speech policies pursued by the new owners.
However, Apple reportedly never considered removing Twitter from the App Store, despite public fears that it would. (Photo by DFree / Bigstockphoto)
