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Meta, Alphabet, Reddit, and more now have to answer for the January 6 attack on the Capitol

What will the tech companies have to say and will anything change in the future?

Us capitol building
Image: Reuters

It’s been a little over a year since rioters stormed the Capitol building and now, the January 6 Committee has announced in a press release that major tech companies have some explaining to do.

The House committee has sent subpoenas to Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Reddit, and Twitter. The committee wants answers on why content “relating to the spread of misinformation, efforts to overturn the 2020 election, domestic violent extremism, and foreign influence in the 2020 election,” was allowed on these platforms.

According to Gizmodo, neither Meta nor Alphabet have responded and Twitter declined to comment. Reddit is the only company to respond, with a spokesperson noting that it has received the subpoena and “will continue to work with the committee on their requests.”

January 6 riot committee
Screenshot: KnowTechie

Some highlights from the press release include Meta’s allowance of the “Stop the Steal” group, Alphabet’s allowance of various YouTube videos regarding the riot, and Reddit’s “r/The_Donald” subreddit (which has been banned). For Twitter, it was mainly regarding the use of the platform as a communication tool for the riots.

This isn’t the first time committee has tasked these companies with an explanation for the January 6 riot. It also happened back in August of 2021. The committee wasn’t satisfied with the answers given at that time, however.

If you would like to read the specific letters to each of these companies, you can find them here: Meta, Alphabet, Twitter, and Reddit.

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Former KnowTechie editor.

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