CEOs of major tech companies have received a subpoena from the US House of Representatives on the issue of free speech. Photo: Gizchina
CEOs of tech companies that have received subpoenas for documents and communications include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
Interestingly, the committee omitted one obvious name that many expected to see, Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
Twitter happens to be one of the platforms most Americans care regarding, and it’s also one of the largest social media platforms in the world. For this reason, it is quite difficult to understand why Elon Musk was not subpoenaed by the US House of Representatives.
The reason why CEOs are summoned
The subpoenas of the CEOs are mainly aimed at investigating issues related to freedom of speech related to the COVID-19 epidemic.
The US House Judiciary Committee and Republicans plan to find out whether the US government colluded with these tech companies to block free speech.
For a long time, many US lawmakers believe that social media companies and technology companies have unjustly suppressed free speech.
In announcing the subpoenas, Jim Jordan explained that since last year, the House Judiciary Committee has made initial efforts to engage with these companies.
Attempts to attract companies like Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet, he said, have all failed.
Apple and other tech companies have been given deadlines by the US House Judiciary Committee
The US government has asked Apple and all the other companies on the list for some data.
These data include documents and communications on topics including content moderation, deletion, and circulation.
The House Judiciary Committee has also given the companies until March 23 to provide the requested data.