by Kyle Perisic
A House committee is reportedly considering issuing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a subpoena for the social media’s allegations of shadow banning conservatives.
An unnamed staffer on the House Energy and Commerce Committee told Politico that it is considering issuing Dorsey a subpoena to testify before the panel after a “tense” meeting with representatives Thursday, Politico reported.
After negotiations to convince Dorsey to testify before the committee over its data and content policies, the Republican source told Politico that the social media giant is “delaying” and “stonewalling” the committee.
“I appreciate your willingness to speak publicly on issues facing Twitter and agree complex algorithms must be better communicated to consumers. After many good faith efforts from staff, this is your formal invitation to appear before @HouseCommerce on Sept. 5,” Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, tweeted at Dorsey Thursday.
A representative from Twitter, along with representatives from Facebook and Google, met with the House Committee on the Judiciary on July 17 to discuss the allegations of the giant platforms censoring conservatives.
During the hearing, Democrats claimed that the major platforms — which control nearly every aspect of social media, internet searches, and internet ads — don’t have a bias against conservatives.
“There’s been no evidence whatsoever that I have seen and that the majority has been able to provide that there’s any bias whatsoever,” Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California said.
Twitter temporarily suspended Steven Crowder, a popular conservative comedian and political pundit, and several other conservatives. Google search results once mislabeled a Republican Senate candidate “bigot” and referred to the Republican Party as Nazi ideology, and Facebook’s new algorithms have damaged conservative news sites, while liberal ones have remand almost unchanged.
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Kyle Perisic is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Kyle on Twitter @KylePerisic.
