House GOP Prepares Latest Smackdown of Big Tech

Capitol Building

The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Republican leadership has scheduled the latest Big Tech beating on Capitol Hill and they have signaled it will be filled with Republican red-meat issues.

The official beating will commence March 28 at 10:30 a.m., but it has already begun.

Unlike a recent Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing that had bipartisan backing, the House hearing notice is filled with partisan shots.

Also Read: Legislator Proposes Social Media Ban

In a joint statement, House E&C chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Communications Subcommittee chair Bob Latta (R-Ohio) said that the Biden admininstration was colluding with Big Tech and “corrput government officials” to ”to silence voices who dare to question the Left's narrative.”

There was no witness list for the hearing, which was labeled "Preserving Free Speech and Reining in Big Tech Censorship," but McMorris and Latta teased the lineup, saying it would include "several people who’ve been silenced by Big Tech."

That will likely not include former President Donald Trump, though he has opined that his ban from Twitter and Facebook — over issues of disinformation about the election and potential hate speech — was censorship in the sheep’s clothing of content moderation by Big Tech in service of the Democrats’ agenda and with the collusion of the media. ▪️

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.