Rep. Jim Jordan, joined by 17 other Members of Congress, wrote to Twitter’s Board of Directors asking for the preservation of documents related to governance, free speech, and twitter’s pending acquisition by Elon Musk. He writes,
Free speech online is under attack by Big Tech. In particular, Twitter has increasingly
engaged in “heavy-handed censorship . . . to silence prominent voices . . . and stifle views that disagree with the prevailing progressive consensus.” Big Tech’s eroding commitment to free speech prevents informed public discourse and undermines First Amendment principles. These harms follow from how Twitter and other social media companies increasingly function as the “de facto public town square” for the American people.
As Rep. Jordan explains, decisions regarding Twitter’s future governance will undoubtedly be consequential for public discourse in the United States and Twitter’s Board Members fiduciary duties to the company’s shareholders apply despite how many corporations’ leaders increasingly pursue progressive policy goals divorced from shareholder interests. As evidence of these corporate policy goals, the letter points to Stephen Soukup’s recent book, The Dictatorship of Woke Capital and the C. Boyden Gray’s 2021 report, Corporate Collusion: Liability Risks for the ESG Agenda to Charge Higher Fees and Rig the Market.
The full letter is available here.