Grassley, Ernst Seek To Crack Down On Big Tech Using Political Bias In Algorithms

Press Release

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference, are pushing to hold Big Tech platforms accountable for using biased algorithms that take control away from consumers and alter the way users are able to see emails from political campaigns.

The Political Bias in Algorithm Sorting Emails (BIAS) Act would create more transparency for consumers by addressing the censoring practices Big Tech platforms use to filter certain emails. Earlier this year, a nonpartisan study found that Google's algorithm, for instance, marked nearly 70 percent of emails from Republican campaigns during the 2020 election as spam compared to only eight percent of emails from Democrat campaigns.

"For too long, Big Tech has enjoyed unchecked and expansive censorship power, which has largely targeted conservative voices. It's past time these companies are held accountable for manipulating algorithms that control what Americans see online, including in their email inboxes. This bill is another important step in my ongoing effort to rein in Big Tech and cultivate more transparency and accountability in the industry," Grassley said.

"When Big Tech targets and silences conservative voices and puts their thumb on the scale of our political process, they need to be held accountable and, at the very least, the public ought to know about it," Ernst said. "This measure prevents these platforms from playing favorites in our elections and ensures there is transparency around how they treat political campaigns from one party versus another."

The senators joined Senate Republican leaders John Thune (R-S.D.), Republican Whip; Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Republican Leader; John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference; Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee; Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee; and 20 of their Republican colleagues today in supporting the legislation.

Full text of the bill is available HERE.

Grassley is also working with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which seeks to restore competition online by stopping dominant digital platforms from unfairly preferencing their own products and services. The bill advanced out of the Judiciary Committee in January.

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