Source: Rolling Stone
Reports from this week specify how Twitter is declining the January 6 House Committee’s requests for the platform’s internal communications. Mainly, these include Slack messages about it moderated Tweets regarding the Capitol Hill riots. The reports state how the social media company is asserting a First Amendment privilege as a response to the committee’s request. Clearly, this has led to some ‘consternation among the committee.’
According to the news outlet, that people on the committee assume that they would get a clearer idea of the issue through the help of the chat logs. Essentially, this includes getting a better picture of how pro-Trump extremism played a part in the Capitol attack last year.
Moreover, this particular update comes at the time of the first of the six primetime hearings of the committee set to to start on Thursday, June 9. Additionally, it comes as anticipation escalates about what would be the revelations in these public testimonies.
Previously, the committee subpoenaed top executives and founders of big tech companies like Twitter Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, along with Alphabet Inc last August. This was for the determination of how the social media giants stewarded their platforms as misinformation regarding the 2020 election ran rampant ahead of the attack.
“It’s disappointing that after months of engagement, we still do not have the documents and information necessary to answer those basic questions.”
However, following subpoenas, the committee went on to regard the companies’ responses as “inadequate”, asking them to submit additional records. In January, committee Chair Bennie Thompson said noted how it is rather ‘disappointing’ that they still did not have documents and data necessary to ‘answer those basic questions’ even following months of engagement.
Evidently, such requests have raised the questions as to what extent the government can and should reach at certain instances. In this case, when compelling social media giants to give in records, and testify in a particular investigation that is of national interest.
In a statement, Twitter Inc noted it has had a continuous ‘productive management with the Select Committee’ since 2021. It added how it submitted relevant information that was an appropriate contribution to this crucial investigation.
Moreover, social media giant went on to say it is ‘committed’ to go on working ‘with the Select Committee,’ making sure to take a ‘principled approach’ while responding to the governments’ request for such data. Additionally, it would continue the detailed evaluation of the ‘merits of each request’ in order to secure the rights of users, the company, along with its workers.