Former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and congressional Republicans slammed DirecTV this week for deplatforming Newsmax last week.
Prominent Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mike Lee (R-UT), and Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to DirecTV, AT&T and shareholder TPG asking for more information about the decision.
One America News Network was also deplatformed last year.
AT&T said it made the decision for "cost-cutting" reasons.
The senators noted that DirecTV pays licensing fees to left-leaning news networks with much smaller audiences than Newsmax, which seems to suggest discrimination and a political agenda.
In the House, 18 members led by Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) said, “This is a clear case of free speech infringement and viewpoint discrimination. Government colluding with telecommunications giants should chill us all."