The Federal Trade Commission demanded that the Elon Musk-owned Twitter turn over internal communications detailing the billionaire's purchase and which journalists were given access to internal records, according to newly released documents.
The FTC sent a series of 12 letters to Twitter asking for internal communications regarding Musk and the journalists involved with the Twitter Files, according to an interim report released Tuesday by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is controlled by the Republican House majority.
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The letters made more than 350 demands of the company, which the Republicans alleged were driven by a partisan agenda on the part of FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan.
"There is no logical reason, for example, why the FTC needs to know the identities of journalists engaging with Twitter," the Republican report said. "There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter's personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk."
The FTC requested information about what the reporters had requested, internal communications "relating to Elon Musk," information about whether Twitter was selling its office equipment, and documentation of when Twitter conceived the concept of the Twitter Blue premium service.
The inquiries were sent after Musk laid off thousands of staff from the company, which led the FTC to become concerned about whether Twitter would be able to comply with a May 2022 $150 million settlement over security breaches.
"A shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth!" Musk tweeted in response to the release of the letters by the committee on Tuesday.
The report is the first released by the subcommittee, which intends to examine how the federal government had pressured private entities such as Twitter and Facebook regarding matters of free speech.
Twitter will be the focus of the subcommittee on Thursday when two journalists involved with the Twitter Files will testify.
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Since her appointment, Khan has adopted a more aggressive approach to antitrust in relation to Big Tech companies. Khan is a leader in what is called the "hipster antitrust" movement, which seeks to dislodge the consumer welfare standard for antitrust enforcement in favor of considering broader economic factors, such as corporate concentration and income inequality.
For example, she was told by FTC staff not to block Meta's acquisition of a virtual reality app developer but pressed forward despite the warnings. The company abandoned the suit on Feb. 24.