House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, demanded answers regarding testimony by a bureau analyst that suggests officials used a “software tool” to track election-related speech on social media.
The analyst claimed during a discussion with the Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) division of the FBI was using the tool to “search open-source databases about content indicative of criminal conduct.”
“According to the analyst’s testimony, the FBI uses this tool to monitor social media posts by users, regardless of whether the users are American citizens or foreign actors, to search for ‘content indicative of criminal conduct,’” Jordan wrote.
“The analyst further testified that the FBI shares its findings, such as the specific ‘user name and the content’ of the posts, with social media companies to censor such content accordingly.”
The phrase “content indicative of criminal conduct” was explored further during the testimony, and when asked how broad the scope of the searches was, the bureau’s legal team interjected.
“Although the analyst testified that the FBI uses this tool to pursue ‘criminal conduct,’ when questioned about the nature of the software tool and the scope of the FBI’s use of it, agency counsel repeatedly prevented the analyst from fully answering the Committee’s questions,” Jordan wrote.