Sen. Marsha Blackburn says there will be oversight hearings regarding big tech censorship

Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn said that with the GOP-controlled House of Representatives coming up in 2023, there will be oversight hearings regarding big tech censorship. 

"I think that Silicon Valley is finally figuring out that with Republicans in charge of the House, that there are going to be some oversight hearings," Blackburn said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

On Wednesday, a former Twitter safety chief admitted that censoring the Hunter Biden laptop back in 2020 was a mistake.

"There's also going to be a push to restructure section 230 which deals with censorship provisions, and there is a push by the American people to break up some of these companies and remove some of this power," Blackburn continued.

There was a recent misunderstanding in which Twitter owner Elon Musk suggested that the Twitter app would be removed from the Apple App Store. Musk then met with Apple CEO Tim Cook who confirmed that it would not be removed.

Sen. Blackburn said that she discussed with Cook a bill she introduced back in 2021. 

"I've had a conversation with Tim Cook about this Open App Markets Act and the bill actually has received quite a bit of publicity," Blackburn explained. 

"My legislation is pretty specific," Blackburn explained. "What it would do is remove the Apple App Store and the Google App Store as the gatekeeper for any and all apps that can go on your device. Right now, you have to go there and have to download the app. It is very difficult to do what's called side-loading, which is putting an app on your phone that is not in the app store. Google and Apple had a monopoly on this."

Blackburn introduced the legislation with her Democratic colleagues, Senators Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.).