by Michael Adkison
Wed, May 29th 2024 at 4:29 PM
Updated Wed, May 29th 2024 at 5:13 PM
The Senate State Affairs committee, chaired by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R- Mineola, unanimously passed a resolution authorizing subpoenas for Alphabet, the parent company of Google; Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram; TikTok; X, formerly known as Twitter; and “any other relevant company or entity.” (Photo by Sergio Flores/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, Texas — A Senate committee tasked with looking into election security policies gave the green light to ask for records from certain big tech companies, including the potential for subpoenas, in a hearing on Wednesday.
The Senate State Affairs committee, chaired by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R- Mineola, unanimously passed a resolution authorizing subpoenas for Alphabet, the parent company of Google; Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram; TikTok; X, formerly known as Twitter; and “any other relevant company or entity.”
“Before issuing subpoenas, we’ll contact each of these entities,” Sen. Hughes said in the committee hearing on Wednesday. “We’ll visit with them, we’ll be real nice, and we’ll try to get the information we need. We’ll give them a chance to comply. We’ll send a request to them in writing. And we’ll let them know in writing that if you do not comply with our request, then a subpoena will be coming.”
The committee voted unanimously, with three Democrats joining eight Republicans, authorizing the subpoenas.
Notedly, the motion, which was made publicly available shortly after the vote, does not have any specific mention of what kind of records are being requested by the committee. Instead, it states that such records would be named in such a subpoena order, but Sen. Hughes assured the committee that “that the subpoenas would be on the subject matter of our interim charges, as we heard today.”
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The same committee does have an interim charge from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to evaluate “Social Media & Protecting Children.” Though that was not discussed officially in Wednesday’s hearing, it’s not immediately clear whether or not such a subpoena would overlap with that interim charge.
The motion authorizing subpoenas comes just a day after Texas’ primary election runoffs, but the scope of the hearing mostly focused on the 2024 November election. The panel heard invited testimony from several individuals, many of whom had conservative ties, who alleged interference from social media organizations involving political content.