Jordan Scrutinizes Renewed Contacts Between Feds and Tech Firms As Censorship Case Continues

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:29 pm

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) pressed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI last week about their renewed contacts with major social media and internet search companies, amid concerns that federal officials have coerced these companies to censor disfavored political speech.

The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit in 2022, alleging various federal officials had unduly pressured social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to censor or suppress disfavored political content.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, issued an injunction in the case of Missouri v. Biden, which blocked the DOJ and various other executive branch departments from reaching out to social media and internet search firms with content moderation and censorship requests. The U.S. Supreme Court has since stayed that injunction as it considers the merits of the case.

In March, an FBI spokesperson told NBC News that the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) had resumed contacts with social media companies.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan issued subpoenas in February of last year to Alphabet (which owns the Google search engine), Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), X (formerly known as Twitter), Microsoft, and Apple, compelling the internet technology companies to disclose their interactions with federal officials. Last week, Jordan sent a new wave of letters to those same technology companies, as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, insisting his February 2023 subpoenas require the technology companies to detail their interactions with federal officials on a continuing basis.

“Given the FITF’s improper role in communicating with social media and technology companies during the 2020 presidential election, the resumption of meetings between the FITF and Big Tech before the 2024 presidential election is deeply troubling,” Jordan’s April 9 letters state.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month in the ongoing case of Missouri v. Biden (now filed under Murthy v. Missouri). President Joe Biden’s administration has argued that various federal officials who had contacted technology firms in the past were conveying concerns about misinformation and disinformation and, while they admit the communications conveyed “intensity” and “anger,” did not cross over into violating people’s free speech rights.

Arguing the Biden administration’s case, Principal Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Brian Fletcher argued that past government officials “may not use coercive threats to suppress speech” but were legally safe to continue “informing, persuading, or criticizing private speakers.” Fletcher insisted government contacts with these technology companies could be considered coercion “only if, viewed objectively, it conveys a threat of adverse government action.”

The FBI official who told NBC News that the bureau had taken steps to avoid being seen as overly coercive with its renewed communications.

“In coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI recently implemented procedures to facilitate sharing information about foreign malign influence with social media companies in a way that reinforces that private companies are free to decide on their own whether and how to take action on that information,” the FBI spokesperson told NBC News.

Jordan’s letters remind the DOJ, FBI, and various technology platforms that they must remain transparent about their communications going forward. In his letters to Garland and Wray, the Republican congressman reminds each recipient that they should provide records of their interactions with the various social media and internet search companies as soon as possible “but no later than two weeks after each DOJ or FBI meeting with social media and technology companies takes place.” He provides a similar two-week disclosure window to the technology companies receiving these DOJ and FBI contacts.