Merrick Garland, the US Attorney General, came under the spotlight as he was put on the spot by Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie during a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing. The contentious subject at hand was the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)’s selective focus on investigations, particularly those involving Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, while apparently overlooking social media tycoon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta.
Musk, who heads two companies presently on the DOJ’s investigative radar, recently came into possession of X, previously known as Twitter, and has since revealed what Massie describes as a “censorship regime.” Meanwhile Zuckerberg, who’s known to have generously funded Democratic causes related to the electoral process, seems to be receiving a different treatment from the DOJ, according to Massie.
“[Musk] became a critic of the [President Joe Biden] administration and exposed the censorship regime. The DOJ has opened not one but two investigations of Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg, on the other hand, spent $400 million in 2020, tilting the elections secretly for Democrats. No investigations whatsoever,” Massie noted, implying a potential political double standard.
Labeling the perceived double standard as seeming almost akin to “mafia tactics,” Massie expressed the concerns of many American citizens when stating, “‘You pay your money, we look the other way. You get in our way, we punish you.’ The American public sees what these tactics are.”
One of the ways Musk has unsettled the establishment is by enabling journalists to release a slew of internal communication, dubbed the “Twitter Files,” which expose how the government pushed for censorship on the Twitter platform.
Thursday also marked a significant turn of events as America First Legal (AFL) launched a legal battle against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), accusing the agency of illegal concealment and violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by withholding public documents. This case arises amidst allegations of government overreach and targeting of Elon Musk and his acquisition of Twitter, shining a spotlight on the ongoing struggle for transparency, free speech, and the protection of open discourse in the digital realm.
The Committee on the Judiciary and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government from the United States House of Representatives unveiled an interim staff report on March 7, 2023. This report investigated the FTC’s purported harassment of Twitter post its acquisition by Elon Musk. The report underscored the alleged misuse of regulatory power by the FTC, emphasizing its inappropriate extension “to justify its campaign of harassment” for seemingly partisan objectives. The essence of this report builds on the concern that partisan retaliatory actions are being wielded to suppress voices and entities that challenge or expose governmental stances and policies.
