Rep. Jim Jordan, who leads the House Oversight Committee, has wasted no time using his newly assigned post to spread right-wing conspiracy theories and air the Republican Party’s petty grievances.
In particular, the Ohio Republican is leading the GOP’s baseless uproar over purported anti-conservative bias at some of the top social media companies in the U.S.
To be clear, there’s no evidence that any of these companies have exhibited any systemic bias toward conservatives. To the contrary, the prevalence of right-wing hate speech and misinformation on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram suggests that conservatives are largely being given a pass.
But the House Republican caucus is moving forward with the conspiratorial tear.
In his role as Oversight chair, Jordan issued multiple subpoenas to executives at various technology companies Wednesday over claims about “the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech.”
See if you notice any major companies missing:
Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio sent the subpoenas to the CEOs of Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook parent Meta and Microsoft requesting documents and communications “referring or relating to the moderation, deletion, suppression, restriction or reduced circulation of content.”
There appears to be a gaping hole in this spate of subpoenas large enough to drive a truck through. Or, maybe, a Tesla.
Put another way: Jordan’s subpoenas appear to be giving Twitter, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a pass.
And what makes this all the more inexplicable is the fact that just last week, the public heard congressional testimony from former Twitter employee Anika Collier Navaroli, who alleged that President Donald Trump’s administration pressured Twitter officials to remove a colorful insult that media personality Chrissy Teigen had posted about him. In other words, Musk’s company is accused of engaging in the very suppression of free speech that Jordan claims he’s trying to uncover.
So, why is Jordan neglecting to subpoena the blue bird?
I suspect a major reason is that conservatives these days view Musk as an ally in their effort to make social media platforms cesspools of lies and hate again. Remember that the Twitter account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, which includes Jordan’s name in the bio, included Musk as one of the conservatives in a since-deleted tweet celebrating Trump, Musk and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
And the House Oversight Committee was also the body that held a hearing on Musk’s recent “Twitter Files” flop, in which Musk and fellow conservatives tried — and failed — to prove Twitter interfered in the 2020 presidential election to help Democrats.
The fact that Twitter eluded a subpoena from Jordan on Wednesday shows — if there was any lingering doubt — that this probe is more focused on churning out GOP talking points than actually resolving the issue of government influence over social media companies.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.