Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Sunday said federal authorities should investigate Amazon, Google, and Apple for racketeering charges after the tech giants said they blocked social media site Parler for not doing enough to moderate incendiary talk.
Parler, a social network that pitches itself as a "free speech" alternative to Twitter and Facebook, has become one of the fastest growing apps in the U.S.
"I don't know where the Department of Justice is at right now or the FBI," Nunes told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo. "This is clearly a violation of anti-trust, civil rights, the RICO statute. There should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company, but on all of those like us, me, like you, Maria.
"I have 3 million followers on Parler. Tonight, I will no longer be able to communicate with those people, and they're Americans. Unlike the fake social media sites, we know that everybody that's on Parler because you get certified, there's a number, it's actually a very, very safe platform, and if you break the law on Parler, the FBI can subpoena to find out who those people are."
The move by Amazon, Google, and Apple follows Twitter's ban of President Donald Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" in the wake of Wednesday's deadly Capitol riot.
"The effect of this is that there is no longer a free and open social media company or site for any American to get on any longer," he said, because Amazon, Google, and Apple, "have just destroyed" Parler.