House Freedom Caucus co-founder Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Breitbart News Daily in an exclusive interview on Friday that social media giants “cannot say they’re an open platform” and then restrict free speech.
Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow asked Jordan about the rampant censorship on social media, particularly on Twitter. Breitbart News reported that Twitter was engaging in shadow banning, a method by which Twitter can limit the reach of a Twitter account, including stopping a user’s followers from seeing tweets from their account. This practice has reportedly disproportionately affected conservatives on the platform.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement on Thursday that he has called on Twitter to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“It is impossible to ignore the fact that only one party is being slammed by this censorship, over and over again,” said McCarthy. “When only one side is doing the talking, you don’t call it a dialogue. You call it a lecture,” McCarthy said.
Marlow asked Jordan what he thought of Twitter’s censorship on Friday.
Congressman Jordan noted that he along with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC), and Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Devin Nunes (R-CA) were shadowbanned. Jordan emphasized that he, along with the three other conservatives, has led the charge to hold the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) accountable for their actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“535 members between the House and the Senate and four, four, were shadow banned, Mark Meadows, Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, and Jim Jordan and Twitter just says it’s just a glitch in our algorithm,” Jordan said. “What did you put in the algorithm? Meadows, Gaetz, Nunes, and Jordan? How does it happen to be the four conservative individuals who happen to be leading the charge against the crazy things that have been going on at the FBI and the DOJ?”
The Ohio Republican continued, suggesting that he along with Rep. Meadows plan to hold a hearing on social media censorship when Congress comes back from the August recess.
Rep. Jordan said, “Mark and I are planning a hearing for the first day we come back in our two subcommittees, that we get the privilege of chairing on oversight, we’re going to figure out what the heck is going on here and ask Twitter some nice questions.”
Marlow then asked Jordan whether the government needs to regulate Twitter, Facebook, and Google to “rein in the tech giants.”
Congressman Jordan said, “They cannot say that they’re an open platform and then restrict certain kinds of speech. If you are an open platform, you’re an open platform, if not then you’re a newspaper, and you’re subject to different rules and regulations and different guidelines … you have to pick which one you are.”
“You want the benefits of being an open platform at the same time you want to restrict speech and it just so happens to be, it seems, to be speech coming from a conservative perspective,” Jordan continued. “That’s certainly what happened last week when had four conservative members, four Republicans, who have been focused on keeping the FBI and DOJ accountable for the ridiculous things they did, those are the ones who are targeted.”
Other politicians and tech experts have called for regulation of social media companies regarding their censorship practices.
House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in June that social media companies need regulation regarding their privacy practices and censorship of conservatives and alternative voices on the Internet.
Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Wireless Bureau Chief Fred Campbell told Breitbart News in April that Congress should repeal the Communication’s Decency Act Section 230 “Safe Harbor provision.” Campbell said that Safe Harbor, a provision in the Communications and Decency Act of 1996, allows for Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to censor at will.
Campbell explained, “Here’s the real problem with Section 230: it empowers these Internet platforms to censor content while removing any accountability for their publications. The Constitution has always protected an individual’s right to defend themselves against libel or slander.”
“Section 230 overrides the common law and says that these Internet platforms can censor all they want and won’t be accountable for anything — for libel or any other falsehoods,” Campbell added.
Congressman Jordan added, “If they are going to continue to do this, we are going to do a different approach to this sort of organization.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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