Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are preparing a contempt citation against Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg over a probe into complaints the social media company has censored conservative speech.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who has accused technology companies of working with the Biden administration, scheduled a vote Thursday on a recommendation to hold Zuckerberg in contempt. The full House would have to approve a contempt citation.
The contempt recommendation asserts Meta has largely ignored demands for internal documents covered by a subpoena issued in February and most only furnished communications with the US government and other external entities.
Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, said the company has “operated in good faith” in seeking to comply with “sweeping requests for information.”
“To date, we have delivered over 53,000 pages of documents – both internal and external – and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal matters, including some scheduled this very week,” Stone said.
The panel also issued subpoenas to the CEOs of Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for documents on their communications with the Biden administration.
Last week, Jordan sent a letter to Zuckerberg demanding information on Meta’s new social media platform Threads, and claimed the committee has “obtained additional evidence that the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies to moderate content online.”
