Rep. Jordan lays into Microsoft for censoring stories about Hunter Biden, China, Dems' abuse of executive orders, and climate change

Conservatives have long been arguing that Big Tech has shown an anti-Republican, anti-right bias by censoring, silencing, and banning stories that could hurt the media's chosen narratives.

Americans have witnessed it in the censorship of reports on COVID-19 treatments and infections, Hunter Biden's infamous laptop, claims of election fraud, the "consensus" on climate change, and more.

In a recent letter to Microsoft President Brad Smith, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan called out the tech company for its "increasingly aggressive editorial control" over stories it doesn't like.

What did the letter say?

Jordan's letter, written from his perch as GOP ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, began by questioning why Democrats "curiously did not significantly examine Microsoft's conduct" during a recent investigation of "competition in digital markets."

Interestingly, Democrats "excluded Microsoft from scrutiny in their large package of bills to radically rewrite American antitrust law," Jordan said.

The lack of examination by the majority party is notable to Republicans, considering the fact that Microsoft has taken increasingly frequent and stronger steps to censor stories that are unfavorable to China and the Democratic Party.

"On behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, Microsoft has censored Bing search engine results of Tank Man on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests — including results for users in the United States — and has muzzled the voices of China critics on LinkedIn," Jordan wrote, citing a June 4 article from Vice.

In its story, "Bing Censors Image Search for 'Tank Man' Even in US," Vice reported:

Bing, the search engine owned by Microsoft, is not displaying image results for a search for "Tank man," even when searching from the United States. The apparent censorship comes on the anniversary of China's violent crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

"There are no results for tank man," the Bing website reads after searching for the term. "Tank man" relates to the infamous image of a single protester standing in front of a line of Chinese tanks during the crackdown.

China censors and blocks distribution of discussion of tank man and Tiananmen Square more generally. This year, anniversary events in Hong Kong have dwindled in size after authorities banned a vigil.

Jordan also noted that the tech company had censored posts on LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, related to Hunter Biden, including a story "about an official U.S. Senate committee report concerning" the son of the president. Microsoft also reportedly suppressed a post "about Big Tech's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal" written by a former general counsel of the National Security Agency.

The congressmen also pointed to reports that LinkedIn censored a piece by Washington Times columnist Cheryl Chumley "about Democrats' abuse of executive orders" and removed a post challenging "accepted" views on climate change.

And of course, the company has repeatedly restricted accounts for COVID-19-related "misinformation," censoring stories that the virus might have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, or that criticized mask requirements.

Jordan concluded his letter by asking Smith to provide some answers to Microsoft's censorship issues:

• Please explain Microsoft's basis for censoring user content about Hunter Biden.
• Please explain Microsoft's basis for censoring user content about the origins of COVID-19.
• Please provide an accounting of all content moderation decisions made by LinkedIn over the last two years for users located within the United States or China, including which LinkedIn rule or policy the user allegedly violated and the content of the moderated post.

(H/T: The Christian Post)