US House panel subpoenas Alphabet over content moderation

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(Reuters) – The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alphabet on Thursday seeking its communications with former President Joe Biden’s administration about content moderation policies.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a Republican, also asked the YouTube parent company for similar communications with companies and groups outside government, according to a copy of the subpoena seen by Reuters.

The subpoena seeks communications about limits or bans on content about President Donald Trump, Tesla CEO and close Trump ally Elon Musk, the virus that causes COVID-19 and a host of other conservative discussion topics.

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have taken aim at Big Tech companies over policies they say lead to suppression of conservative viewpoints online. U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson has said companies that coordinated their policies with others or misled users about their own policies may have violated the law.

Last year under scrutiny from Jordan’s House panel, Meta Platforms said the Biden administration had pressured it to censor content. The company ultimately dialed back its content moderation in January.

“Alphabet, to our knowledge, has not similarly disavowed the Biden-Harris Administration’s attempts to censor speech,” Jordan said in a letter to the company on Thursday.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company will “continue to show the committee how we enforce our policies independently, rooted in our commitment to free expression.”

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)