House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, released a trove of internal documents that he says shows Amazon "censored" COVID-19 content after "feeling pressure" from President Biden's administration.
Jordan's documents, dubbed "The Amazon Files," were obtained thanks to a series of subpoenas. The Ohio Republican detailed their contents in a thread on X.
"Never-before-released internal emails subpoenaed by [House Republicans] reveal that the Biden White House pressured Amazon to censor books that expressed views the White House did not approve of," Jordan wrote.
He pointed to documents showing emails and messages between Amazon employees regarding the issue.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan released a trove of internal documents that he says show Amazon "censored" COVID-19 content after "feeling pressure" from President Biden's administration. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)
"Is the [Biden] admin asking us to remove books?" one employee asked ahead of a meeting with the White House.
The documents show that White House officials sounded alarms about search results they deemed inappropriate.
"Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?" Andrew Slavitt, a former White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response, wrote in an email on March 2, 2021.
Documents show White House officials sounded alarms to Amazon employees about search results they deemed inappropriate. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson / AP Newsroom)
"If you search for ‘vaccines’ under books, I see what comes up," Slavitt wrote the same day. "I haven’t looked beyond that but if that’s what’s on the surface, it's concerning."
Another White House official went on to note that he did not see any "CDC warning" when clicking on content the administration thought of as problematic.
Amazon initially rebuffed the White House pressure, emails from March 2, 2021 show.
"We will not be doing a manual intervention today," one email between Amazon executives read. "The team/PR feels very strongly that it is too visible, and will further compound the Harry/Sally narrative (which is getting the Fox News treatment today apparently), and won’t fix the problem long-term … because of customer behavior associates."
Nevertheless, Amazon later agreed to meet with administration officials on March 9 because they were "feeling pressure from the White House," Jordan says. That same day, Amazon enabled a "Do Not Promote" policy for books that were skeptical of vaccines.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The White House defended its actions in a statement to Fox News but added that Amazon makes "independent choices."
"When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. But our position has been clear and consistent: Although we believe tech companies and other private actors should take account of the effects their actions are having on the American people, they make independent choices about the information they promote."
Jordan says he has launched a congressional investigation to discover the extent of censorship at Amazon, saying the inquiry will "be continued."
Fox News' Lawrence Edwards contributed to this report.