House leader calls for FBI investigation into Talking

On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee called for an FBI investigation into Parler’s involvement in the deadly attack on the Capitol this month.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) called on the office to “conduct a thorough review of the role played by the social media site Speak” in of the pro-Trump assault of January 6. Capitol. Maloney said the committee intended to open its own investigation and requested a meeting with FBI officials regarding the status and scope of any future investigation on the social media platform.

In an interview with the Washington post, Maloney said, “I’m going to find out who owns and funds social media platforms like Talk that condone and create violence.”

In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah. The Mercers are known to financially support conservative causes and organizations like the late Cambridge Analytica.

In the letter, Maloney cites several instances in which Parler users have been arrested and charged with “threats of violence against elected officials” and discussed organizing groups of protests on the platform. In the days following the deadly attack on Capitol Hill, Talking was started from Apple and Google’s app stores and taken offline after several web hosts refused to service the site. At the time of going to press, Parler is still offline.

Last week, the FBI announced that it had received more than 100,000 digital evidence in the wake of the Capitol Riot. It’s unclear how unique this evidence is, but FBI officials have opened up more than 150 cases to individual rioters.