House GOP to Probe Big Tech's Interactions with Biden White House

House Republicans are planning to launch a new subcommittee this week that will investigate communications between Big Tech companies and the Biden administration, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNBC.

The new subcommittee will reportedly be focused on determining whether the Biden administration is unfairly targeting conservative voices on social media platforms.

The launch of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, reported earlier on Monday by Axios, represents a nod to the conservative faction of the GOP caucus by newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section previously reported plans for the panel.

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is expected to lead a new subcommittee that will investigate communications between tech companies and the executive branch. The panel will search for signs of pressure leading to conservative censorship online.

Last month, Jordan hinted at plans to demand information from the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft about what he called "the nature and extent of your companies' collusion with the Biden Administration." Jordan told the companies they should preserve any existing or future records related to his request for communications with the executive branch about "moderation, deletion, suppression, restricting or reduced circulation of content."

Facebook's parent company, Meta, and Microsoft have both declined to comment on Jordan's letters. The other three companies did not respond to previous requests for comment.

After Twitter owner Elon Musk released the "Twitter Files" - a report from a select group of journalists he allowed access to internal files after he took over the company - there was renewed interest in the platform's past content moderation decisions under its previous ownership. In response to this, Twitter has decided to create a panel to review its moderation policies.

Twitter's decision to block links to a New York Post article ahead of the 2020 election was heavily scrutinized. The article claimed to find "smoking gun" emails related to then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter. At the time, Twitter said it believed the story violated its hacked materials policy. Twitter later reversed the decision and its then-CEO said the actions the platform took were "wrong." The company changed its policies to prevent a recurrence.

The new subcommittee is expected to investigate other areas where the government may be influenced or politicized, including the intelligence community and public health agencies.

The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment. However, in response to a Politico article last month describing negotiations to create the subcommittee, White House spokesperson Ian Sams wrote on Twitter that House Republicans are more focused on "pointless political stunts" to get media attention than on working with President Trump or congressional Democrats to address issues that Americans care about, like inflation and lowering costs.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are facing increasing pressure to moderate their content. This video explores the challenges they face in doing so.