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JIM JORDAN SUMMONS EX-BIDEN ADMIN OFFICIALS TO HOUSE HEARING ON INTERNET
CENSORSHIP

By Steven Nelson

Published April 9, 2024, 3:59 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan invited three former
Biden White House officials to appear at a May 1 public hearing to discuss their
pressure on companies to censor online content — as the Supreme Court considers
whether the administration violated the First Amendment by pressuring platforms
such as Facebook to yank posts and videos.

Jordan (R-Ohio) invited former White House director of digital strategy Rob
Flaherty, former COVID-19 coordinator Andy Slavitt and former COVID-19 digital
director Clarke Humphrey after Flaherty and Slavitt flouted Jordan’s earlier
subpoenas requiring their testimony in closed-door depositions.

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“The Committee on the Judiciary is continuing to conduct its investigation into
how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with
companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” Jordan wrote to the group.

3
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan invited three former Biden
administration officials to a hearing on internet censorship. Annabelle
Gordon/CNP via ZUMA Press Wire

“To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new
statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with social media
platforms and other companies to restrict the circulation of content and
deplatform users, the Committee must first understand the nature of this
collusion and coercion.”

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The Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee focused on the alleged political
“weaponization” of federal offices will host the hearing — should any of the
invited guests show up.

Jordan, who chairs the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal
Government, issued legally binding subpoenas in November requiring that Flaherty
and Slavitt appear at depositions in January, but the pair elected not to
appear.

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To date, the Judiciary Committee has not taken action to hold them in contempt,
which can carry criminal penalties.

3
Former White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty was summoned to
speak about pressuring social media companies to censor online content.
X/@RFlaherty46

Some details of the White House pressure campaign to squelch online discourse
have emerged in documents, but many particulars remain murky.

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In his letter to Flaherty, Jordan wrote “the Committee has obtained documents
that demonstrate the central role you played in communicating the Biden White
House’s censorship efforts to social media companies, including the White
House’s demands to censor true information, memes, satire, and other
constitutionally protected forms of expression.”


SEE ALSO


SUPREME COURT JUSTICES APPEAR SKEPTICAL OF CENSORSHIP CLAIM AGAINST BIDEN WHITE
HOUSE IN BIG TECH CASE

“As one of the Biden White House’s primary representatives responsible for
interfacing with large social media companies, you likely have knowledge about
the White House officials responsible for leading the Biden censorship regime as
well as information regarding the intent behind various messages you and others
sent to social media companies,” Jordan added.

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“[I]nternal Facebook documents obtained by the Committee illustrate your
specific role in threatening high-ranking Facebook executives to censor
Americans’ speech, including critics of the Biden Administration. These internal
notes reveal that you sought to have Facebook ‘kick people off’ the platform,
change its newsfeed algorithm, and ‘play ball’ with the Biden Administration’s
censorship demands.”

The White House did not immediately comment on the planned hearing, nor did
representatives for the former officials.

Supreme Court justices last month heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by
Missouri and Louisiana against the Biden administration for pressuring social
media companies to remove alleged misinformation, especially about COVID-19
vaccines.

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3
Former COVID-19 coordinator Andy Slavitt and Flaherty ignored a November
subpoena from Jordan. White House via AP

The litigation by the Republican-led state governments turned up a cache of
documents showing that Flaherty and his team heavily pressured platforms like
Facebook and Twitter, but attempts to force testimony from Flaherty and former
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said in 2021 that Biden aides were
“flagging” content for removal, were unsuccessful.

Censorship critics note that speech suppressed online often ends up gaining
widespread acceptance — such as a theory that the COVID-19 pandemic emerged from
a Chinese lab, which Facebook censored through May 2021, but which now is the
FBI’s own assessment.

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What do you think? Post a comment.

In another instance, Facebook and Twitter initially censored The Post’s October
2020 reporting on documents from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop that showed
then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was involved in his son’s foreign
business relationships in China and Ukraine.

The Post’s reporting was suppressed after the FBI, which had taken possession of
Hunter Biden’s laptop in December 2019, claimed that there could be a “hack and
leak” operation impacting Biden’s son.

In 2022, the Intercept reported that Facebook created a special portal for
federal officials to send moderation requests, including to remove “parody
accounts or accounts with virtually no followers or influence.” The White House
denied using that particular mechanism.


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Filed under censorship ,  first amendment ,  house judiciary committee ,  Jim
Jordan ,  republicans ,  social media ,  us house of representatives ,  4/9/24
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