White House officials will be hosting representatives from multiple Jewish groups for a roundtable discussion related to Twitter’s new free speech policy and public comments by Kanye “Ye” West on Wednesday.
This will be the third meeting Jewish groups have had with officials in Washington in the last week.
On November 30th, US lawmakers had a closed-door meeting with leaders from around 17 Jewish organizations to discuss what the new Congress’ legislative priorities will be.
A second meeting, around the same time, was headed by Senator Ben Cardin. This session sought to improve communication and access for private Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League to various executive branches and federal law enforcement, according to reporting by Jewish Insider.
What the White House’s approach to Ye West’s 2024 presidential campaign or Twitter remains to be seen. Under US law, Ye’s criticism of Jewish power is protected speech, while on paper Twitter is a private business allowed to have any content moderation policy it sees fit.
Taking any kind of legal action to suppress an opposing candidate’s political campaign is a serious breach of established Department of Justice ethics, though these norms have been eroded in recent years. Federal courts have also consistently thrown out laws seeking to influence content moderation policies on social media platform.
The upcoming meeting on Ye and Twitter has not been publicly announced and the subject matter of this ostensible government roundtable has been kept opaque. Obscure Jewish media sources have reported that White House Jewish Liaison Shelley Greenspan sent out the mass invitation to well-connected Jews promising that unnamed White House officials will attend, but no non-Jews appear to have been invited, even to report in a press capacity.