A group of 23 elected officials in Idaho are asking the state’s pension fund to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of big tech firms who they say are censoring free speech.
The letter, signed by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and several state lawmakers, specifically named Twitter, Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook as companies to divest from.
Idaho’s pension fund, known as PERSI, currently has more than $660 million invested in these companies, according to the letter.
The politicians say these companies “have censored free speech and the free exchange of ideas by many groups and citizens.”
The First Amendment protects citizens from being prosecuted by the government for their speech, among other things.
Following the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this month by a group of pro-Trump extremists in an attempt to overturn the election, big tech companies have purged many accounts. They say these accounts violated their terms of service.
Amazon Web Services also declined to continue hosting the right-wing social media platform Parler on its servers.
The state’s pension board is scheduled to meet Tuesday morning, but the issue isn’t listed on the agenda.
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