President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, already facing a tough confirmation fight, has received a civil investigative demand from Indiana’s Republican attorney general as part of his probe into Big Tech content moderation practices.
Kristen Clarke, whose nomination deadlocked in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, received the request from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who also sent demands to NAACP President Derrick Johnson, Rev. Al Sharpton, and several other activists.
Rokita is investigating whether Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc.or Amazon.com Inc.‘s content management practices violate state consumer protection laws by “censoring” conservative content online. The activists drew Rokita’s attention following a media reportabout a meeting Rokita’s office believes they attended with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech company executives.