Tech giant Alphabet (GOOGL) received a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday as it investigates whether the Biden-Harris administration pressured companies such as Alphabet to suppress lawful speech. The subpoena, which was issued by Ohio Republican and judiciary chair Jim Jordan, is looking for all relevant communications in order to determine to what extent the government influenced content moderation.
In his letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Jordan pointed to Meta Platforms’ (META) recent admission to being pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor posts that were related to vaccines, among other topics. He noted that, unlike Meta, Alphabet has not publicly distanced itself from any alleged government efforts to censor speech. Jordan’s letter also claimed that YouTube was actively involved in what he referred to as a “federal government censorship regime.”
As a result, Alphabet has until March 28 to respond to the subpoena. This comes after the judiciary panel subpoenaed several major tech companies last week, such as Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Rumble (RUM), and TikTok. The committee is also looking for records of these companies’ communications with foreign governments.
Is Google Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 26 Buys and 11 Holds assigned in the past three months. After a 28% rally in the past 12 months, the average GOOGL price target of $215.56 per share implies 25.5% upside potential from current levels.
