Senator Schmitt Questions Witnesses about the Biden Administration’s Efforts to Censor Conservatives

Biden Admin Pressured Big Tech to Censor Conservatives During COVID-19 Pandemic

WASHINGTON - During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned witnesses about the Biden administration's pervasive efforts to pressure tech companies to censor protected speech, deplatform conservatives, and remove and demote so-called 'disfavored' content.

The hearing, titled Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans, Part II builds upon a previous hearing chaired by Senator Schmitt and a recent report that revealed the extent to which the Biden administration weaponized the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) into becoming a government censor.

Watch Senator Schmitt's full line of questioning HERE

Senator Schmitt on the Biden Administration's Censorship Efforts (edited for length and clarity):

Senator Schmitt: "Mr. Erickson. Let's talk about search during the 2024 election. While Google search was an illegal monopoly, according to the court, it was repeatedly biased against President Trump. If you searched 'where can I vote for Donald Trump' Google showed nothing. Is that correct? You're aware of this, right?"

Mr. Markham Erickson, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google: "Senator, I am not aware of that […] I can assure you there is no political manipulation of our search results."

Senator Schmitt: "I also want to ask you when you type in 'President Donald', Google would prompt you with 'President Donald Duck' or 'President Donald Reagan', not 'President Trump' in the lead up to the 2024 election. Is that just a coincidence?"

Mr. Erickson: "Senator, we are very proud that Google search is the most trusted platform for information."

Senator Schmitt: […] "I've been through the litigation with you guys. The great black box is your search, and I'm telling you, it's politically biased. And until you reconcile this, you're going to continue to have an erosion of trust and hopefully more lawsuits. Because people do go on Google and they search, but what they find is a politically biased […] It's astounding. The difference between [Republicans] and [Democrats] is real […] Google recently sent a letter to Congressman Jordan, explaining the Biden administration tried to coerce Google […] So, when Rob Flaherty, the Deputy [Communications] Director for the [Biden] White House, who is infamous for saying 'are you guys [expletive] serious, I want an answer on what happened here, and I want it today' during the height of [the COVID pandemic]. So, you guys didn't succumb to any pressure from the [Biden] White House to censor speech?"

Mr. Erickson: "Senator, when we get communications from the Biden administration or the Trump administration or any government entity around the world, our trust and safety teams apply our terms of service and guidelines independently."

Senator Schmitt: "Okay, so it was your decision to ban Dan Bongino on YouTube. It was your decision to ban RFK Jr on YouTube. That was your decision alone, correct? Yes or no, please."

Mr. Erickson: "Senator, I am not familiar with those specifications."

Senator Schmitt: "You can't have it both ways. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya - who's now the NIH Director - you banned content from him because he said masks were ineffective for kids. You were banning the hell out of conservatives left and right in that time period. So, that's on you, I guess. [Google] didn't succumb to the pressure. But Facebook did. Mr. Potts, I want to ask you - in July of 2021, in addition to Mark Zuckerberg admitting it, your testimony is interesting, because your testimony today was that these were [Facebook's] decisions, no pressure. That's not what your CEO said. And maybe that's a litigation strategy because that case is still ongoing. I don't know. But you have emails from employees saying 'because we were under pressure from [Biden] administration officials to do more, I was on the more package. We removed four claims that multiple fact checkers labeled as false, even though we didn't have a harm assessment. We shouldn't have done that.' You could go through emails that were uncovered in discovery. You go through the letter from Mark Zuckerberg. [Facebook] clearly was coerced by the Biden administration. But your testimony today is that's actually not true. These were all done in your own volition. Is that accurate? Which one is it?"

Mr. Neil Potts, Vice President of Public Policy, Meta: […] "I hate to speculate with, perhaps, what my colleague meant…"

Senator Schmitt: "Mark Zuckerberg's letter to [Congressman] Jim Jordan said 'we were repeatedly pressured to censor certain COVID-19 content. The government pressure was wrong, and I regret we didn't do more, and we weren't more outspoken.'"

Mr. Potts: "That is correct."

Senator Schmitt: "So, your testimony is that you were coerced by the Biden administration. Is that accurate?"

Mr. Potts: "Senator, if I can add a bit of nuance here - we felt pressure from the Biden administration. We ultimately made those decisions of our own volition. We have our policies; we made those decisions. In hindsight, would we have made different choices with all the information we have today? I'm sure we would make different choices."

Senator Schmitt: "In closing, forgive me if the fact that the Biden administration was threatening to [make] Section 230 protections go away, they were threatening investigations. So, the idea that [Facebook] didn't succumb to pressure from the White House to censor exclusively conservatives during the COVID-19 pandemic is laughable. But thank you. I'm out of time."

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