Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday called on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate social media platform “X” after the platform appeared to block users from following Vice President Harris’ campaign account on Monday.
Nadler’s letter He called on Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to consider the “serious and urgent issues of censorship” on the platforms.
Harris launched her presidential campaign on Monday, the same day President Biden gave up his reelection bid. Her campaign account Kamala HQquickly gained over 1 million followers on X.
“Regardless of political ideology, the American people have a protected right to receive communications regarding Vice President Harris’ candidacy,” Nadler wrote. “Vice President Harris has a right to communicate with the American people as she seeks the nation’s highest office.”
The letter gives examples of users seeing errors such as “limit reached” when trying to follow Harris’ account.
“These error messages make no sense. Users experiencing these issues are free to follow other accounts and not violate any potential request limits,” Nadler wrote.
“This suggests that X may be intentionally suppressing or impeding Vice President Harris’ ability to communicate with potential voters,” he continued. “If this is the case, such conduct amounts to egregious censorship based on political and viewpoint discrimination — a matter that this Committee clearly takes very seriously.”
“Given your long track record of fighting political discrimination in America’s town square, the forum of speech, I trust you will join me in requesting additional information from Mr. X regarding this apparent censorship of a candidate for President of the United States,” Nadler wrote to Jordan. “The Committee should immediately launch an investigation and request, at a minimum, the following information from Mr. X:
Jordan has long been a critic of social media platforms’ censorship of political speech, and last year he issued subpoenas to three government agencies for pressuring social media sites to suppress certain speech, including information about the coronavirus during the pandemic.
X owner Elon Musk has been critical of Harris since she announced her candidacy, after saying last week that he supports former President Trump and has spent tens of millions of dollars to support his campaign.
