During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into tech companies’ efforts to remove Parler as a platform from the internet.
The California Republican cited violations of antitrust laws, civil rights and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
“Well, Maria, when I wrote that book, I was hoping to warn Americans so that they would vote right and that maybe this wouldn’t happen and this could be prevented,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s far worse than what I could even imagine. The effect of this is that there is no longer a free and open social media company or site for any American to get on any longer, because these big companies, Apple, Amazon, Google, they have just destroyed a — what was likely — Parler is likely a billion-dollar company. Poof, it’s gone. But it’s more than just the financial aspect to that. Republicans have no way to communicate. If — and it doesn’t even matter if you’re a Republican or conservative.”
“If you don’t want to be regulated by left-wingers that are at Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, where you get shadowbanned, nobody gets to see you — nobody gets to see you, they get to decide what’s violent or not violent, it’s preposterous,” Nunes continued. “So, I don’t know where the hell the Department of Justice is at right now or the FBI. This is clearly a violation of antitrust, civil rights, the RICO statute. There should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company but on all of those like us, like me, like you, Maria. I have 3 million followers on Parler. Tonight, I will no longer be able to communicate with those people. And they’re Americans.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor