The Justice Department said it has officially invited 24 states’ attorneys general to meet with Attorney General Jeff Sessions about tech companies and possible harm they cause to competition and conservative voices.
According to a Justice Department official, there was an “increased level of interest” in attending the Sept. 25 meeting following the original announcement last week.
“Today, the Justice Department formally sent invitations to a bipartisan group of twenty-four state attorneys general that expressed an interest in attending the meeting hosted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions,” the official said Thursday. “The meeting will take place here at the Department of Justice, and we look forward to having a robust dialogue with all attendees on the topic of social media platforms.”
At least one of those states is California, according to a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney general.
“States like California, the nation’s tech leader and home to a $385 billion tech industry, have a wealth of insight and expertise to share in any inquiry about the role of technology companies, and we look forward to a thoughtful conversation in Washington, D.C.,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office said in a statement.
Reuters reported last week that South Carolina and Texas were invited and will attend.
The Texas attorney general’s office will send a representative to the meeting because of concerns about “conservative voices … being suppressed on several social media platforms,” Marc Rylander, a spokesman for Attorney General Ken Paxton, said in an email.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson will either attend himself or send a representative to the meeting, according to spokesman Robert Kittle.
The Justice Department announced last week it would hold the meeting to discuss a “growing concern” that social media and tech companies may be “intentionally stifling” the free flow of ideas on their platforms.
“The attorney general has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms,” said the original statement announcing the meeting.
The announcement comes amid accusations by President Trump and some of his Republican allies in Congress that social media giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google censor conservative content.
Trump has also suggested that larger tech companies have antitrust issues. He has tweeted that Google’s search results are “rigged” against him and right-wing media organizations, and suggested in an interview that Google, Facebook, and Twitter represent a “very antitrust situation.”
Facebook and Twitter have both repeatedly denied political bias, and Google said in response to Trump that it doesn’t “bias our results toward any political ideology.”
According to Bloomberg, Sessions is using the Sept. 25 meeting to determine “if there’s a federal case to be made against companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. for violating consumer-protection or antitrust laws.”
