Republican leaders on the powerful Energy & Commerce Committee have officially written to complain to the White House about what they say are its attempts "to pressure private companies like Twitter and Facebook to censor certain speech or silence individuals." They want the Biden Administration to provide the committee with its communications with Big Tech.

That came after the release of some communications showing the White House sought to have what it considered disinformation removed from social media platforms.

The Republicans saw it differently. "The information revealed shows how quick Big Tech is to censor Americans to appease their Democrat allies in the White House," they told the White House.

Also: White House Issues Core Principles for Big Tech Reform

The Republicans first gave a copy of the letter seeking those communications to the New York Post, which is co-owned with Fox News, whose commentators have been critical of the Administration efforts to either crack down on misinformation and disinformation, as Democrats see it, or censor conservative critics, as Republicans allege.

"We know that administration officials and federal bureaucrats requested these companies to censor legitimate news stories and public discourse regarding the COVID-19 pandemic under the guise of combating misinformation, disinformation, and election interference," they wrote the White House Tuesday (Sept 13).

The "they" are Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, ranking member of the committee, Bob Latta, ranking member on the Communications Subcommittee, and Gus Bilirakis, ranking member of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee.

Those legislators cited as an example what they said was Facebook's admission it has restricted access to apparent disinformation at the behest of the FBI, that information being related to the Hunter Biden laptop story they say Democrats and the media have downplayed for political reasons.

They also pointed to meetings between Twitter and White House officials over the speech of a conservative user of their platforms.

Those examples came following efforts by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri to get access to communications between the White House and social media. While they got some info, they are seeking more and the legislators want to provide some backup, asking the White House to retain and provide communications to the Committee, including related to COVID-19 conversations with employees of Facebook.

"Administration officials have previously described conservative users as their political enemies, and we have previously expressed our concern that the administration’s recent actions could lead private companies to censor conservatives due to increased White House pressure," the legislators wrote.

They want a response from the White House by Sept. 26. ■

The White House is trying to collect evidence of social media censorship and account takedowns, including tweets and screenshots of takedown notices. 

That is according to a tool on the White House website noted by Public Knowledge, which is no fan of the effort, saying it raises constitutional issues. 

Related: Trump Meets With Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey 

A number of Republicans have been complaining about alleged social media platform censorship of conservative speech, including the President and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn. 

The President has accused edge providers, including Twitter in particular because he is a frequent user, of a bias against conservatives. "I have many, many followers on Twitter and it's different than it used to be," he has said. "Things are happening. Names are taken off. People aren't getting through," he told Daily Caller. "It seems to be if they are conservative, if they're Republicans, if they are a certain group, there's discrimination. I see it absolutely on Twitter, and Facebook and others," though he said he focused on "the one platform [Twitter]." 

"SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear 'violations' of user policies," the White House website tool says. "No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump." 

Public Knowledge has its own story to tell about social media.

"Platforms should treat their users fairly and respect norms of due process," said senior counsel John Bergmayer. "But online services have no obligation to provide a platform for content that violates their terms of service; in fact, a more pressing problem than alleged 'censorship' of any particular viewpoint is the proliferation of misinformation, propaganda, hate speech, terrorist content, and harassment online. This misguided effort by the White House raises serious constitutional questions and could hamper the ability of platforms to moderate their platforms and take down such content. 

“To the extent that particular constituencies feel that their viewpoints do not get a fair hearing, we would welcome efforts from the Trump Administration to increase platform competition through the vigorous application of antitrust laws, interoperability initiatives, and similar endeavors.”