Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan sent a letter to former Biden Director of Digital Strategy Robert Flaherty on Friday, demanding a transcribed interview on Biden administration collusion with Big Tech.
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and the extent to which the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with tech companies and other intermediaries to censor speech. Whether directly or indirectly, a government-approved or -facilitated censorship regime poses a grave threat to the First Amendment and Americans’ civil liberties,” the letter reads.
Flaherty entered the Biden White House in Jan. 2021, and his tenure coincided with significant efforts by social media companies to censor certain viewpoints, particularly on issues of COVID-19 and vaccinations. The Biden administration in that time actively lobbied and colluded with Big Tech firms to prohibit discussion, often dubbed misinformation, on a variety of other issues as well, including energy.
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan Demands Interview from former Biden Digital Director on White House’s Social Media Censorship Scheme with Big Tech pic.twitter.com/WuuqVix0df
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) June 23, 2023
“Documents made public earlier this year demonstrate that in the course of your employment at the White House, you facilitated direct communications between [the Executive Office of the President] and large social media companies regarding the moderation of content related to topics such as COVID-19 and vaccines. These direct and frequent communications with these companies included instructions and demands to remove certain content, which, in numerous instances, appear to have been followed by the social media companies,” Jordan’s letter continues. (RELATED: ‘Send Me Location’: Mark Zuckerberg Is On Board To Fight Elon Musk In ‘Cage Match’)
Jordan, who serves as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has issued letters regarding multiple allegations that the Biden administration colluded with private entities. Most recently, he penned a letter to several large banks in the United States demanding documents on potential privacy violations due to unprompted data sharing with the FBI.
Friday’s letter orders Flaherty to contact House Judiciary by July 7 to schedule his transcribed interview.