House Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Twitter, Alphabet, Meta and Reddit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued subpoenas to four social media companies who have so far provided “inadequate response” to requests for information and records relating to the spread of misinformation and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The subpoenas were issued to giants in the industry, including Alphabet, Meta, Twitter and Reddit.

“We cannot allow our work to be delayed any longer,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), in a statement. “Two key questions for the Select Committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps — if any — social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds to radicalizing people to violence.”

Thompson said that despite months of engagement “we still not have the documents and information necessary to answer those basic questions.” In a letter sent this week to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, Thompson cited reports that Facebook disbanded a Civic Integrity Team that was to focus on election misinformation “and reduced the application of tools used to restrain the spread of violent content. However, despite repeated and specific requests for documents related to these matters, the Select Committee still has not received these materials.”

A letter to Alphabet, formerly known as Google, asked for specific information regarding YouTube, a platform it described as providing “ significant communications by its users that were relevant to the planning and execution of January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.” The letter noted that Stephen K. Bannon live-streamed his podcast on YouTube in the days before and after January 6, 2021, and that images of the Capitol insurrection were carried live on YouTube.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/13/meta-alphabet-twitter-reddit-subpoenas-house-committee/

[orleans]

1. why aren't they getting parlor in on it? maybe i just don't understand.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. There was too much going on that you missed it (back last March)

Parler says it sent the F.B.I. posts about threats to the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6.


By Katie Benner

March 25, 2021

Parler, the social network popular with Trump supporters, said on Thursday that it had been working with law enforcement for months to identify possible illegal activity, including notifying authorities of specific threats to the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. Parler said in a letter to Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and chair of the House Oversight Committee, that it formalized its relationship with the F.B.I. in November “to facilitate proactive cooperation and referrals of violent threats and incitement to law enforcement.”

The company said that it sent the bureau dozens of concerning posts written by its users, including some related to the deadly Jan. 6 attack. “In the days and weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Parler referred violent content from its platform to the F.B.I. for investigation over 50 times,” the company said in its letter. “Parler even alerted law enforcement to specific threats of violence being planned at the Capitol.”

The letter raises fresh questions about whether the F.B.I. took seriously enough threats of violence made ahead of Jan. 6, when Congress formally certified the Electoral College after President Donald J. Trump had spent weeks spreading baseless claims about election irregularities.

The F.B.I. declined to comment on the letter or on what it has done with any information it has received from Parler. Four days before the riot, the company said it gave the F.B.I. posts made by a user who said that he would attend the Jan 6 rally in body armor because “it’s no longer a protest.” “This is the final stand where we are drawing the red line at Capitol Hill,” according to quotes from his messages that Parler shared with Congress.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/parler-fbi-capitol-attack.html

There is a copy of the letter that was sent to the House Oversight Committee here (PDF) - https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A18b6cc84-03e0-4d84-9536-917fd7acfa12#pageNum=1

I expect the House Oversight Committee had already turned over whatever they had to the January 6 Select Committee.

[orleans]

6. thanks for posting this. (it's hard to tell if i missed it or just forgot--so much going on

both out in the world and in my little world w/home & family. i get overwhelmed sometimes)

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Don't know if it's related but

mail2world.com has been inaccessible for almost 48 hours. Not much word on the outage other than they're working on it. Company is supposedly a major email provider and HQ in Los Angeles CA.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Here's the buzz on that one

Link to tweet

[Botany]

4. Meta is Facebook w/another name and I guarantee you that a lot of these 1/6/21 Jugheads used ...

... used Facebook in their planning. Say like Don Jr. & Kimberly on coke binge telling everybody to come to DC
and go wild.

“We cannot allow our work to be delayed any longer,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), in a statement. aka no more fucking around.

[Justice matters.]

5. Well, well, well...

How's that "The material you alerted us on is not against our TOS Rules" going for ya, geedy f**ks?