Jim Jordan Demands Input From Google About White House 'Censorship'

The House Judiciary Committee is demanding that Google parent, Alphabet, provide information to Congress about alleged “censorship” by the Biden-Harris administration.

“To inform legislative reforms to protect Americans’ civil liberties, the committee must fully understand the extent and nature of the Biden-Harris Administration’s censorship efforts,” committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a letter sent to CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday.

Jordan added that his committee has “obtained documents showing that the federal government successfully pressured YouTube to censor certain lawful content, including content that did not violate YouTube’s content moderation policies.”

The lawmaker sent Alphabet a subpoena for a trove of data -- including information regarding communications between the company and officials in the executive branch of government, and internal Alphabet conversations regarding communications from the government.

“To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” the House member wrote.

Jordan referred in the letter to Meta Platforms' recent decision to replace fact-checkers with “community notes” and eliminating restrictions on some topics, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's statement that the Biden administration “pressured” the company to suppress some COVID-19 related speech.