Republican Leaders Target Google for Alleged Censorship

Republican leaders, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio, are focusing their scrutiny on Google, raising concerns that the tech behemoth is engaging in censorship and violating the free speech rights of Americans. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which also controls YouTube, is now in the crosshairs of GOP lawmakers, following Meta’s shift from a controversial fact-checking program to a Community Notes system akin to that used by Elon Musk’s X platform.

Cruz’s Commitment to Free Speech

Senator Cruz has been vocal about his commitment to battling online censorship, emphasizing it as a key issue for the Commerce Committee. “Stopping online censorship is a major priority for the Commerce Committee,” Cruz stated, according to Politico. “And we are going to utilize every point of leverage we have to protect free speech online.” After meeting with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Cruz highlighted that “Big Tech censorship was the single most important topic.”

Cruz expressed his concerns via Twitter, stating, “Big Tech is nakedly and brazenly censoring views they dislike. Right now, Big Tech is censoring right of center views – but they could arbitrarily decide to censor the Left next. It’s profoundly dangerous.” View Tweet

Jim Jordan’s Legislative Actions

Representative Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has taken concrete steps by issuing subpoenas to Alphabet and other tech giants like Rumble, TikTok, and Apple. These subpoenas, issued in February, aim to investigate “compliance with foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders, or other government-initiated efforts” to uncover any influence foreign governments or the Biden administration may have on restricting American free speech.

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In a letter to Pichai in March, Jordan wrote, “Throughout the previous Congress, the Committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech. To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech.” Jordan continued his efforts into 2023 by subpoenaing tech CEOs including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple, and Pichai among others.

Historical Context and Ongoing Legal Battles

The issue of tech censorship has been a concern since President Donald Trump’s first administration, with Cruz initiating an investigation into Google back in 2019. This investigation began during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Cruz questioned Karan Bhatia, then Vice President for Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google. Cruz presented evidence suggesting that tech companies, including Google, were deviating from free speech principles and leaning towards censorship.

Even as Congress is in recess, the pressure on Google continues to escalate. A federal court recently ruled that Google’s ad-tech unit violates U.S. antitrust laws, establishing it as an illegal monopoly. This decision marks the second antitrust ruling against the tech giant, following another court’s decision in 2024 that Google abused its dominance in the online search market.

As of now, Cruz, Jordan, and Google have not responded to requests for comment regarding these developments.