Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter Inc.
Two Republican federal lawmakers have sent another letter to social media giant Twitter, asking for internal documents on the company’s policy of censoring user speech. The letter specifically mentions Twitter’s blocking of unfavorable news about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden‘s second son in previous months and the labeling and even removal of posts by then-President Trump criticizing election fraud.
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio and Republican Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado have sent another letter to Twitter, asking the company to provide documents related to its internal content censorship policies.
The letter asks for a “statement of decision” on the censorship of users’ comments last year, as well as documentation of the company’s censorship of Trump’s posts about mail-in ballots and other content and the labeling of them as requiring “fact check.
During the U.S. election campaign from last October to early this year, Twitter first blocked a story published by the New York Post that was unfavorable to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, then tagged and even deleted Trump’s posts criticizing election fraud, and finally shut down Trump’s account altogether.
The letter, addressed to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, highlights Twitter’s “leadership role” as a major technology company in enforcing political content censorship of user speech.
The lawmakers argued that Twitter has a responsibility to disclose their policy rationale for censorship and related documents. They questioned whether if Twitter can do this to the president of the United States, it can do the same to “any American for any reason.
“Big tech companies, and Twitter in particular, are practicing systematic discrimination based on viewpoint.” “Twitter has played a leading role in suppressing and censoring the political speech of conservative Americans in the unfortunate phenomenon of ‘cancel Culture,'” the letter reads.
As early as last July, then-House Oversight Committee senior Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin made a similar request of Twitter to provide information on “the size, competitiveness and role of social media companies. But Twitter has not provided any documents.
This Time, however, Reps. Jordan and Barker set a clear deadline for Twitter to submit the documents – 5 p.m. on March 18 of this year.
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