House Committee subpoenas Apple over AI censorship

US Capitol. Image Credit: Alejandro Barba

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to Apple, as part of an investigation into whether the Biden administration influenced Big Tech to censor artificial intelligence.

The House Judiciary Committee has sent subpoenas to 16 tech companies working in AI, with Apple among the group. The list also includes Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI, among others.

The subpoena from the Republican-led committee seeks information about the creation of their AI efforts, and how they could’ve been influenced by the Biden-Harris administration.

The subpoena to Apple says it is an investigation to “what extent the executive branch coerced or colluded with artificial intelligence (AI) companies and other intermediaries to censor lawful speech.” Having previously determined that the administration had repeatedly pressured online platforms, and efforts to “control AI to suppress speech,” it is taking the investigation further.

In the case of Apple, it was one of the companies that agreed to abide by “voluntary commitments” to mitigate “harmful bias” in AI between July 2023 and July 2024.

An October 2023 executive order from Biden is also referenced, one that required AI companies to share how they trained models and develop “dual-use foundation models.” The order also called for “consensus industry standards, for developing and deploying safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems,” and directed the Department of Justice to address algorithmic discrimination in AI.

This was apparently seen by the subpoena’s author to pave the way for “direct government control of the AI market.” It then brings up how some of the companies who agreed to the voluntary commitments signed an agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to share access to new major models before and after their public release.

Furthermore, it is alleged that the Biden-Harris administration was attempting to coordinate AI regulatory efforts with governments of different countries and territories. For example, pledging in April 2024 to work with the European Union to “advance and reinforce interoperability between AI governance frameworks,” with a view to “backdoor the EU’s AI regulations into the United States.”

An evidence demand

The point of the subpoena is to secure documents from Apple, and other tech companies, that may support the assertion on the previous Democrat administration. This includes a long list of documents surrounding AI, and Apple’s communications with the government.

It starts off with all documents and communications from January 2020 to January 2025 discussing the “moderation, deletion, suppression, restriction, or reduced circulation of the content, input, or output of an AI model, training dataset, algorithm, system, or product.”

This is said to include a number of subcategories of documents, chiefly those between Apple and the U.S. Executive Branch, but also documents and communications between Apple and foreign governments “in partnership with” the U.S.

It also demands “All such documents between Apple and any third parties,” as well as internal documents within Apple discussing the U.S. Executive Branch, foreign governments, or any third party. This pretty much covers any and all communications on AI that Apple made over a five year period.

It is requested that the documents are submitted by March 27, 2025. The subpoena also insists it serves as a formal notice to preserve any further records and materials associated with the matter.

A repeated fear

The current Republican-led probe into AI is an attempt to try and prove that Big Tech companies are censoring the talking points and views of conservatives. The investigation is a direct attempt to assert the claim of technological censorship, which supporters of the Republican party think is happening.

This is not the first time the Republican party has gone after tech under the assumption that censorship of its talking points was commonplace.

In 2021, a “stop big tech censorship” bill was signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, ordering social media companies to inform users when they are banned and censored. DeSantis claimed that social media firms used “shadow banning to shape debates and control the flow of information,” but were somehow avoiding accountability due to being deemed neutral platforms.

In 2018, Apple and other tech companies were sued by Freedom Watch in an attempted class action suit for “all politically conservative organizations” and individuals who “experienced illegal suppression and/or censorship of their media.” That lawsuit directly accused the tech companies of engaging in a conspiracy to “intentionally and willfully suppress politically conservative content.”