INDIANAPOLIS–Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has begun an investigation into five Big Tech companies that he says may have “potentially harmed Indiana consumers.”
The inquiry looks into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter. He is investigating methods by which the companies have limited consumers’ access to certain content — often deleting or obscuring posted material reflecting a politically conservative point of view.
Facebook and Twitter have deleted or limited interactions with posts it says promote misinformation or encourage violence. In February, Twitter blocked likes and retweets for two days on a Rokita tweet of a meme suggesting the 2020 election was “stolen.”
Rokita is also investigating actions taken by attorney Vanita Gupta, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be associate U.S. attorney general. He charges Gupta may be encouraging those companies to censor conservative viewpoints.
“In a free society, few assets are more important to consumers than access to information and the opportunity to express political viewpoints in meaningful forums,” said Rokita. “It is potentially harmful and unfair for these companies to manipulate content in ways they do not publicly discuss or that consumers do not fully understand.”
