While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last Thursday, FTC Chair Lina Khan was grilled by Chairman Jim Jordan about the FTC’s investigations of Twitter since Elon Musk purchased the company last fall, the Daily Caller reported.
Jordan accused Khan of harassing the social media company on behalf of the Democrats, an accusation Khan denied.
In March, the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report which found that since Musk took over the company, the FTC has issued over 350 requests for information from Twitter, including requesting information on the journalists working with Twitter in compiling the so-called “Twitter Files.”
The report concluded that the timing and frequency of the FTC’s requests “suggest a partisan motivation to its action.”
Noting that the FTC has requested “every single communication relating to Elon Musk” instead of just the communications Musk sent or received, Jordan told Khan that these requests aren’t just harassment but appear to be “almost an obsession.”
Jordan called out Khan for the FTC requesting the identities of all of the journalists that were granted access to Twitter since Musk took over, asking her if she believed that such requests were “consistent with the First Amendment.”
Khan deflected, telling Jordan that as a former journalist, she takes “the valuable work they do” “extremely seriously.”
But Jordan countered that the government asking for this type of information threatens the First Amendment and a free press. He said it was “particularly troubling” that the FTC’s requests related to the journalists’ reporting on how the government was suppressing the free speech of Twitter users.
When Jordan demanded to know if Khan was targeting Twitter at the request of the Democrats, the FTC Chair said the agency only makes “independent determinations about whether there were law violations.”
