Hunter Biden, COVID-19: Why are House Republicans focusing on Twitter, other social media firms? - USA TODAY | By The Perfect Enemy

• The House Oversight committee aims to prevent the government from influencing social media posts.


• The Oversight panel also seeks to require a report about government contacts with social media.

WASHINGTON – The House Oversight and Accountability Committee approved two bills in party-line votes Tuesday aiming to curb government influence on social media posts on Twitter and Facebook.

• One bill from the chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., seeks to prohibit federal agency employees from using their authority to influence social media companies to suppress or restrict or add disclaimers to lawful commentary. The committee voted 24-20 to approve the bill.


• The other bill, from Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., would require a government-wide report of all the times in the last five years a federal agency urged a social media company to remove or suppress or add disclaimers to lawful speech. The committee voted 24-20 to approve the bill.

Here’s what we know about the legislation:

Why is House Oversight focusing on Twitter, other social media companies?

Both pieces of legislation come after a hearing earlier in February detailed how Twitter temporarily blocked links to news stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Republicans argued social media platforms also suppressed allegations of 2020 election fraud and COVID-19 origins and treatments. Twitter and Facebook each banned former President Donald Trump after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, but his access has been restored.

Former Twitter executives testified they met routinely during the 2020 presidential campaign with FBI officials who would raise concerns about posts, which the company would decide whether to act on. The executives regretted blocking links to a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop weeks before the 2020 election, but said they had been warned about possible Russian hacking and disinformation.

“It is inappropriate and dangerous for the federal government to decide what lawful speech is allowed on a private sector platform,” Comer said. “All Americans have a right to utilize these new and powerful communication technology resources to share their views and opinions without Uncle Sam putting his thumb on the scale to tile influence debate in one direction.”

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said none of the witnesses said the FBI ordered Twitter to limit distribution of the story. But former President Donald Trump’s White House contacted the platform urging the removal of a 2019 tweet by celebrity Chrissy Teigen, witnesses said.

“Social media companies have a First Amendment right to establish their own rules governing their own speech,” Raskin said.

The prospects for both Oversight bills are uncertain because of conflicting policy goals between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate. In broad terms, Republicans contend too much free speech is restricted, while Democrats have argued the platforms should do more to combat misinformation.

Policing social media ‘huge problem’ to GOP or ‘a solution without a problem’ to Democrats

Republicans supported both pieces of legislation after complaining that social media sites routinely blocked or suppressed conservative posts on subjects such as the origins of COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said anyone who suggested the virus began in a Chinese lab was labeled as conspiracy theorists, “nuts” and “xenophobes.” He cited social media platforms discouraging posts from doctors quoting medical studies about masks not working.

“It’s a huge problem in my mind,” Biggs said.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said people should be able to question masks, vaccines and what happened in hospitals without fear of being shut down, suspended and banned.

“Americans need to be able to ask these questions,” Boebert said. “They have the right to receive information about what’s going on.”

But Democrats said there was no evidence at the committee’s recent Twitter hearing that FBI agents or others in the federal government had any impact on the platform’s decision to block links to the Hunter Biden laptop story. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., called the legislation “a solution without a problem.”

“This is not about the First Amendment,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. “This is gaslighting.”

The committee approved the bills after rejecting a half-dozen Democratic amendments along party-line votes. Among them were a Raskin had proposal to apply the legislation to Congress, in addition to executive branch agencies. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., proposed to allow national-security workers to relay information about threats such as disinformation about elections.

“If we don’t adopt this amendment, this becomes the Putin Protection Act,” Raskin said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Former Global Head of Trust & Safety Twitter, and Anika Collier Navaroli, a former Twitter employee, are sworn in during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on "Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter's Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story," on Feb. 8, 2023 in Washington."/>

Alleged suppression of conservatives a focus of House GOP

The legislation is part of House Republican oversight of the Biden administration that lawmakers said was neglected while Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. Republicans have focused on social media companies in their initial inquiries.

Besides the legislation in Oversight and Foreign Affairs, the head of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed top executives from five companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta – to ask about the alleged suppression of conservatives.

Jordan seeks information about whether the FBI or other agencies urged private companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube to steer users away from conservative content or drop conservative users.

The subpoenas went to: 

#Coverage, #Vaccines

---

Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3Y86oGn.