WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, has sent a letter to Microsoft, accusing the tech giant of being "out to get conservatives."
The letter from Jordan comes as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to consider a series of antitrust bills that could force Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook to overhaul their business practices, according to CNBC.
In his letter to Microsoft President Brad Smith, Jordan openly wondered why House Democrats did not include Microsoft in the list of companies for reform.
“Big Tech, including Microsoft, Inc., is out to get conservatives. Despite Microsoft’s size and market dominance, House Democrats curiously did not significantly examine Microsoft’s conduct during their investigation of competition in digital markets. Democrats also seem to have excluded Microsoft from scrutiny in their large package of bills to radically rewrite American antitrust law," Jordan wrote to Smith.
Jordan accused Microsoft of taking "increasing aggressive editorial control over content on its platforms," citing that the company's Bing search engine has censored "Tank Man" results on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests 'on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party." Jordan also believes Microsoft's LinkedIn is muzzling both Chinese critics and conservative speech.
"Multiple LinkedIn users have reported Microsoft's censorship of posts related to Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden," Jordan wrote. "LinkedIn has restricted accounts for posts related to COVID-19. Citing its misinformation policy, LinkedIn censored posts that the coronavirus originated from a dangerous labratory in Wuhan, China, as well as posts that criticized government-mandated mask requirements."
Microsoft is also guilty of exerting control over user-generated content in Microsoft Word, according to Jordan.
“For example, Microsoft Word’s ‘Ideas in Word’ tool urges users to avoid language that Microsoft dislikes and instead to adopt language Microsoft considers to be appropriate and ‘gender neutral. Not only is this censorship Orwellian, but given Microsoft Word’s vague terms of service—which prohibit any ‘hate speech’ or ‘offensive language’ as defined by Microsoft —this censorship creates the potential for Microsoft to prevent users from generating certain content on Microsoft Word altogether," he added.
Jordan closed his letter by making five requests of information from Smith and asking that it be provided immediately. The requests include answering what the company's basis is for 'censoring user content' about Hunter Biden and the origins of COVID-19.
Earlier this year, Jordan announced that he would not seek to replace the retiring Rob Portman in the U.S. Senate in 2022. However, he is releasing a new book called “Do What You Said You Would Do: Fighting for Freedom in the Swamp," which is set to be released on November 23.
Jordan's book promises an "inside look at the detailed investigations of the United States Congress, the groundwork for Donald Trump’s win in 2016, and the events that occurred during his successful four years as president."
"Do What You Said You Would Do: Fighting for Freedom in the Swamp" will be the second book written by Jordan. In 1994, he and wife Polly Jordan co-authored "Victory at the training table: A guide to sports nutrition" while he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University.
The Urbana Republican has had to withstand allegations of covering up sexual abuse during his time at Ohio State. Multiple former athletes have claimed Jordan and others knew of Dr. Richard Strauss' numerous crimes, but did nothing to stop them. Jordan has strenuously denied the allegations.
Tyler Carey contributed to this report.
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