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Senate hearing spotlights allegations of government pressure on social platforms and debate over FCC threats to broadcasters
Summary
Witnesses told the Commerce Committee that government contacts with social media companies led to unlawful or coercive censorship in some cases, while senators and witnesses also warned that recent threats by the Federal Communications Commission chair to revoke broadcast licenses raise separate First Amendment risks.
Alex Berenson, a journalist who testified that Twitter permanently suspended him in 2021, and Sean Davis, CEO and cofounder of The Federalist, told the Senate Commerce Committee that government contacts with social media companies contributed to deplatforming and other restrictions on their speech.
Berenson said his suspension “deprived me of my largest and most vital platform for my journalism” and testified the ban followed, in his view, pressure from the Biden White House and “at least 1 senior Pfizer board member.” He told senators he sued Twitter in December 2021, that Twitter later admitted his posts “should not have led to my suspension,” and that he was reinstated in July 2022. Berenson told the committee a federal district judge had “laid out” facts in rulings in a 2023 lawsuit he brought against the federal government and others; he also said a recent ruling recognized that, “on the merits, the federal government has now conceded my claim that the Biden administration violated my First Amendment rights in 2021,” while the…
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