Watch: GOP Rep. Calls for ‘Racketeering Investigation’ After Parler Ban

In response to Big Tech’s nearly unified ban on the social media app Parler, conservatives have been sounding the alarm over what it could mean for the future of speech.

Speaking with Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said that the collective attack on Twitter alternative Parler by Amazon, Apple, and Google warrants an investigation for any violations of antitrust laws, civil rights, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

“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, because these big companies – Apple, Amazon, Google – they have just destroyed a — what was likely — Parler is likely a billion-dollar company,” said Nunes. “Poof, it’s gone. But it’s more than just the financial aspect to that. Republicans have no way to communicate. If — it doesn’t even matter if you’re a Republican or conservative.”

“If you don’t want to be regulated by left-wingers that are at Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, where you get shadowbanned, nobody gets to see you … they get to decide what’s violent or not violent; it’s preposterous,” Nunes continued. “So, I don’t know where the hell the Department of Justice is at right now or the FBI. This is clearly a violation of antitrust, 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, like 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.”

Amazon, Apple, and Google charged that Parler failed to regulate violent speech, which allegedly culminated in the violent riot on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.