House Republicans Express Concerns With the Biden Administration's Statements on Health Misinformation Online

House Republican Leaders sent a letter to US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy regarding the Biden Administration's approach to COVID-19 related misinformation on tech platforms. "We write with significant concerns that the Biden Administration continues to undermine the First Amendment by pressuring technology companies to censor specific users and certain speech," reads the letter sent by Reps Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA) and James Comer (R-KY). "The First Amendment prohibits the government from directly censoring speech it finds objectionable. To bypass that prohibition, Biden Administration officials continue to pressure private companies to do what it cannot." The lawmakers detail the surgeon general's public statements on health misinformation online and claim the Administration's stance on this content is unconstitutional. "As defenders of free speech," they said, "we are deeply troubled by the Biden Administration's efforts to silence Americans and your specific role in chilling free speech and expression under the guise of 'public health.'" The representative request that Murthy respond to a variety of questions about his communications to other Biden officials and to tech companies about COVID-19 misinformation by March 25, 2022.