Justice Department to consider allegations of censorship, bias

Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to meet with state attorneys general this month to discuss whether tech companies may be “intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas,” the Justice Department said Wednesday in a statement.

The announcement comes a week after the White House said it would explore regulating Google — and minutes after senior executives from Facebook and Twitter finished testifying before a Senate panel on the companies’ efforts to stem the tide of misinformation on the platforms.

Agency spokesman Devin O’Malley said the meeting also will consider whether tech platforms “may have harmed competition” with their actions, a hint that the Justice Department may be weighing anti trust action against the firms.

The meeting, which had been in the works since before Wednesday’s hearing, is expected to take place Sept. 25 in Washington — and at least three state attorneys general have agreed to participate, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The person declined to say which states were involved. But the group does not include New York, whose attorney general, Barbara Underwood, will not be attending, according to her spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick.

Representatives for several other state attorneys general did not respond.

DO J’s announcement significantly heightens the stakes for the tech companies in Washington, where policymakers have widely criticized the digital platforms but have refrained from passing legislation or launching probes into their conduct.

“Pressing Google, Facebook and Twitter on political bias is mostly noise at this point,” said Paul Gallant, an industry analyst at the market research firm Cowen & Co. “But if those discussions are implicitly backed by antitrust threats, that’s an escalation that will set off alarm bells in the companies.”

It also raises fresh questions about whether President Donald Trump’s own rhetoric may undercut the Justice Department’s efforts.

In recent days, Trump has said the companies may find themselves in a “very antitrust situation,” accusing Google and Facebook of “suppressing” conservative viewpoints.

Twitter and Google declined to comment on the Justice Department announcement.

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.