House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday accused Twitter of trying to “silence” Americans after the platform banned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy.
McCarthy didn’t directly name Greene in his statement blasting the social media company, but he specifically called out a decision against a “sitting member of Congress.”
“It is clear any speech that does not fit Big Tech’s orthodoxy gets muzzled. America is poorer for that conduct,” he said in his statement.
Only Greene’s personal account has been banned from Twitter, with the first-term lawmaker’s congressional account still active.
A Twitter spokesperson said Greene’s personal account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the company’s coronavirus misinformation policy. The Hill has reached out to a Twitter spokesperson for additional comment in response to McCarthy’s statement.
Other House Republicans also slammed Twitter over its action against Greene, who has faced repeated criticism — and removal from her House committee assignments — over her embrace of conspiracy theories and endorsement of political violence.
“Welcome to the Woketopia. Where information is controlled by the few,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said Republicans “WILL be holding” tech companies “accountable” if the party takes back the House majority in the fall.
The decision to ban Greene is fueling Republican accusations that Silicon Valley has an anti-conservative bias in its decisions on what to censor, although such claims have been disputed by researchers.
McCarthy said he directed “relevant committees and task forces to continue their work in getting answers — voluntarily or through rigorous congressional oversight — from Twitter and other Big Tech companies surrounding their decision to silence certain Americans and to hold these companies accountable.”
“House Republicans will be ready to take action that protects Americans when they express their constitutionally safeguarded views, just like we have laws on the books today that prohibit discrimination by corporations in many other contexts,” he said.