House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan has invited three former Biden White House officials to a public hearing on May 1 to discuss their pressure on companies to censor online content. This comes as the Supreme Court considers whether the administration violated the First Amendment by pressuring platforms like Facebook to remove posts and videos. Jordan has invited former White House digital strategy director Rob Flaherty, COVID-19 coordinator Andy Slavitt, and COVID-19 digital director Clarke Humphrey to discuss the issue.
The Judiciary Committee is investigating how the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies to censor speech. Jordan believes that understanding the nature of this collusion and coercion is necessary to develop potential legislation to limit the Executive Branch’s ability to restrict content and deplatform users. The hearing will focus on the alleged political weaponization of government, but it is unclear whether the invited guests will show up. Jordan had previously issued subpoenas for Flaherty and Slavitt to appear at depositions, but they did not comply, and the Committee has not taken action to hold them in contempt yet.
Documents have revealed some details of the White House pressure campaign to censor online discourse, but many specifics remain unclear. Jordan’s letter to Flaherty mentioned the central role he played in communicating the White House’s censorship efforts to social media companies, including demands to censor information, satire, and other forms of expression. Internal Facebook documents obtained by the Committee showed Flaherty’s role in pressuring Facebook executives to censor Americans’ speech, including critics of the Biden Administration.
The planned hearing has not received immediate comments from the White House or representatives for the former officials. The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by Missouri and Louisiana against the Biden administration for pressuring social media companies to remove misinformation, particularly about COVID-19 vaccines. This litigation revealed that Flaherty and his team heavily pressured platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but attempts to force testimony from Flaherty and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki were unsuccessful.
Critics of censorship note that suppressed speech online often gains widespread acceptance over time. Examples include the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a Chinese lab, which Facebook censored until May 2021, but is now the FBI’s own assessment. Another instance of censorship was Facebook and Twitter’s initial suppression of The Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop documents that indicated Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s foreign business relationships. This reporting was halted after the FBI claimed a potential “hack and leak” operation affecting Biden’s son.
