A top House Republican Friday strongly criticized a recently released Democratic anti-Big Tech report, arguing that the analysis neglected Republican complaints about bias against conservatives.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering how to rein in Big Tech companies for anti-competitive behavior, said a committee antitrust report on competition in digital markets was produced in a partisan fashion, rather than a bipartisan one, to meet Democrats’ objectives. The report, which was recently introduced into the Congressional Record, passed the Judiciary Committee last week on a party-line vote without a single Republican’s support.
“This staff report is a document prepared exclusively by Democrats who fundamentally refuse to believe that Big Tech is systemically biased against conservatives,” Jordan wrote in a “dissenting” letter sent to House Judiciary staff that was obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“If Congress is going to seriously examine and address Big Tech’s biases, the abuses cannot be properly diagnosed by Democrat leaders who refuse to see the real problems,” he wrote.
ANTI-BIG TECH ANTITRUST PUSH EXPECTED UNDER BIDEN
The Ohio congressman, who has been vocal about allegations of conservative censorship online for years, cited Washington Examiner reporting in his letter to make the point that Rep. David Cicilline, the Democrat from Rhode Island who leads the antitrust subcommittee’s Big Tech investigations, recently said bias against conservatives was “not an actual problem.”
Democrats such as Cicilline often cite studies that have concluded that social media companies don’t discriminate against conservatives and instead boost their content.
However, Jordan said in his letter that the “Democrats’ approach in their investigation and staff report suggests that they desire Big Tech to censor even more speech.”
Top Republicans in February went so far as to say that, left by Democrats with few other options, their party is entertaining the idea of breaking up Big Tech companies in the hope of countering unfair censorship.
In the dissenting letter, Jordan cited former President Donald Trump being deplatformed from various social media platforms and the banning of Parler by Apple, Google, and Amazon as examples of anti-conservative bias and Big Tech’s “agenda of advancing cancel culture.”
Jordan also took issue with the broad scope of the recommendations within the House antitrust panel report, which he said, if implemented, “would overhaul antitrust laws that apply to every sector of the American economy” rather than focusing only on anticompetitive behavior on online platforms and marketplaces, such as those of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Harms done to consumers by the tech industry are of highest concern to Republicans.
However, Jordan made clear that his dissent against the antitrust report would not reduce the push by Republicans to hold Big Tech companies more accountable.
“That no Republican voted for the Democrats’ staff report does not mean all is well for the Big Tech titans in Silicon Valley,” he wrote.
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He pledged to keep working to overhaul Section 230, the controversial law that gives Big Tech companies legal immunity for user-generated content, and push to break up the unfair power of Big Tech titans.
