GOP Calls for ‘Church-Style’ Investigation Into Big Tech Following Latest Twitter Disclosures

Republicans eager to punish Big Tech for supposed transgressions against conservatives in recent years are already citing new disclosures about the cozy relationship between Twitter and federal agencies as proof of the need for wide-ranging investigations by the GOP-controlled House starting in January. Recently released documents from Twitter indicate close cooperation between the tech platform and government agencies surrounding Covid policy, election information, and other issues. Agents from both the FBI and the CIA feature prominently in the disclosures. Encouraged by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, details of the connections in what are now known as the “Twitter Files” were unveiled by an independent journalist, Matt Taibbi, along with writer Bari Weiss. In a Christmas Eve post, Mr. Taibbi made public a number of emails that exposed coordination between Twitter executives and the FBI, among other agencies. Congressman Jim Jordan, soon to be the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said his party plans to have a “Church-style” investigation of the tech industry, social media platforms, and their business practices. The Church Committee was a U.S. Senate select committee, led by Senator Church, that in 1975 exposed a number of secret governmental and intelligence programs. According to a poll from earlier this year, nearly four of every five Republican voters want their legislators to regulate Big Tech in some way. The work by Mr. Taibbi and others gives the GOP just the starting point they need. Mr. Jordan’s announcement that his party is looking at a “Church-style” investigation signifies that the GOP could probe infiltration of the technology companies by U.S. government agencies and intelligence operations — a focus that is far different from the Democrats’ proposed assault on Silicon Valley via Justice Department lawsuits and antitrust reform. A South Carolina Republican congresswoman, Nancy Mace, echoed that sentiment. “With a new Republican majority next year, it’s not enough to just hold hearings, we need to hold people accountable,” she said. That Mr. Jordan and Ms. Mace — the former a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and the latter a moderate from a swing district who President Trump attempted to dispatch this year — fall on the same side of the issue speaks to its salience within the conservative movement. Mr. Jordan’s call for a Church-style committee is significant. He will be one of the most powerful committee chairmen in the coming Congress. He has also cultivated a close relationship with the presumed speaker of the new House, Congressman Kevin McCarthy — a man with whom he once clashed regularly. With a divided government in Washington, Republicans’ greatest asset for the next two years is their ability to issue subpoenas. After the attack on America’s embassy at Benghazi, the GOP set up a select committee to investigate. Speaker Pelosi did the same to investigate the events of January 6, 2021. Before the most recent disclosures, most of the debate over the “Twitter Files” centered on the right of a private company to manage its own platform free from government interference. Now, however, there is evidence of government players attempting to suppress the speech of ordinary Americans, which provides Republicans with the fodder they need to raise First Amendment and other constitutional concerns.The most prominent subject of the most recent disclosures was information surrounding the coronavirus, its origins, and mitigation strategies instituted by state and federal governments. “I invited the FBI, and I believe that the CIA will virtually attend too,” Twitter’s assistant general counsel, Stacia Cardille, wrote in one email to the bureau’s San Francisco field office in July, 2020. The group was reportedly meeting about how to combat information circulating online about Covid-19. Beyond FBI agents on the emails, other governmental employees were attached to the message threads. A number of individuals from what was called the “Other Government Agency” — allegedly a euphemism for the CIA — featured prominently among the bureau’s special agents. Apart from Covid, the government pressure also included efforts to suppress what it called “misinformation” surrounding recent elections. The Foreign Intelligence Task Force — a division of the FBI — became more prominent in Twitter’s internal communications as the 2020 election approached. Special Agent Elvis Chan of the San Francisco office seemed to act as the primary go-between for federal agents and Twitter executives. In the released files, Mr. Chan is shown to be forwarding requests to Ms. Cardille from other agents regarding specific tweets and accounts, asking her to review the content. In one email, Mr. Chan sends Ms. Cardille an Excel spreadsheet of individuals. “Our FBI Baltimore identified these Twitter handles and tweets which appear to provide misleading information on time, place, or manner of voting in the upcoming elections,” he wrote in the September 2020 email. In a recent interview, Mr. Musk said that “almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true,” referring to alleged collusion between Twitter and the FBI.

GOP Calls for ‘Church-Style’ Investigation Into Big Tech Following Latest Twitter Disclosures

GOP Calls for ‘Church-Style’ Investigation Into Big Tech Following Latest Twitter Disclosures

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