Tech giants including Amazon, Google, and Meta are being accused of content censorship by the US House of Representatives.
They are now all set to be grilled as per new reports by the Wall Street Journal today. It revealed how the House’s chairman issued a letter that subpoenaed all the CEOs of the respective firms. This included Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon for details on how they go about moderating content online through their respective platforms.
The deadline to submit a response is now March 23rd and that’s when they’ll be forced to share all sorts of chats carried out between them as well as with the country’s Federal executive branch regarding the concerns raised.
The panel says it wishes to learn more about how and to which degree the country’s government reportedly pressurized them to censor content. Moreover, the letter asks for details in the form of names of those that are in charge of the moderation policies and those talking to the executive branch.
Similar to the view that most Republicans hold, the chairman feels a lot of tech giants end up censoring views that are conservative and use the disguise of hate speech or misinformation to be the key factor in carrying out such actions.
But what critics do find to be awfully interesting is that Twitter was never a part of the conversation. And that might be due to the fact that it shows incredible support for right-wing activists as Elon Musk is in the lead.
Let’s not forget how the billionaire opted to reinstate former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account on his platform, despite his being inactive.
Similarly, he is busy going about sharing Twitter Files seen internally. These cover the firm’s sharing limits as mentioned in a report by The New York Post where talks about Hunter Biden were included. Similarly, it highlighted more on the topic of Trump’s ban after January 6th’s Capital Riot.
But while so many right-wing leading figures claim the disclosure is clear proof of how anti-conservative censorship is ruling the day on social media, critics have another school of thought. According to them, there just isn’t anything new and conclusive here.
It fails to provide a lot of evidence regarding the conspiracy of the company. Similarly, it was only provided to the likes of writers that were aligned with Elon Musk’s plans and thoughts.
For now, none of the five tech giants involved have commented on the concerning matter. But Microsoft did mention how it would be sending out documents and a plan in place for the committee as a part of ‘good faith’.
All tech giants have previously denied the allegations that have come through against them of being biased toward moderating content online. Instead, they vowed to be doing everything in their power to get rid of falsehoods and all sorts of other harmful content online.
Read next: Why Are Social Media Ads Getting Worse?
They are now all set to be grilled as per new reports by the Wall Street Journal today. It revealed how the House’s chairman issued a letter that subpoenaed all the CEOs of the respective firms. This included Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon for details on how they go about moderating content online through their respective platforms.
The deadline to submit a response is now March 23rd and that’s when they’ll be forced to share all sorts of chats carried out between them as well as with the country’s Federal executive branch regarding the concerns raised.
The panel says it wishes to learn more about how and to which degree the country’s government reportedly pressurized them to censor content. Moreover, the letter asks for details in the form of names of those that are in charge of the moderation policies and those talking to the executive branch.
Similar to the view that most Republicans hold, the chairman feels a lot of tech giants end up censoring views that are conservative and use the disguise of hate speech or misinformation to be the key factor in carrying out such actions.
But what critics do find to be awfully interesting is that Twitter was never a part of the conversation. And that might be due to the fact that it shows incredible support for right-wing activists as Elon Musk is in the lead.
Let’s not forget how the billionaire opted to reinstate former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account on his platform, despite his being inactive.
Similarly, he is busy going about sharing Twitter Files seen internally. These cover the firm’s sharing limits as mentioned in a report by The New York Post where talks about Hunter Biden were included. Similarly, it highlighted more on the topic of Trump’s ban after January 6th’s Capital Riot.
But while so many right-wing leading figures claim the disclosure is clear proof of how anti-conservative censorship is ruling the day on social media, critics have another school of thought. According to them, there just isn’t anything new and conclusive here.
It fails to provide a lot of evidence regarding the conspiracy of the company. Similarly, it was only provided to the likes of writers that were aligned with Elon Musk’s plans and thoughts.
For now, none of the five tech giants involved have commented on the concerning matter. But Microsoft did mention how it would be sending out documents and a plan in place for the committee as a part of ‘good faith’.
All tech giants have previously denied the allegations that have come through against them of being biased toward moderating content online. Instead, they vowed to be doing everything in their power to get rid of falsehoods and all sorts of other harmful content online.
Read next: Why Are Social Media Ads Getting Worse?
