Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, shared “smoking gun” documents that he says prove Facebook was taking down social media content at the behest of the Biden White House.
Jordan shared the series of documents ahead of a scheduled committee markup hearing, which expected Republicans to take action to file a contempt of Congress suit against Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company CEO Mark Zuckerberg , to continue.
“These documents, AND OTHERS just submitted to the committee, prove that the Biden admin abused his powers to force Facebook to censor Americans, preventing free and open discussion of issues of critical public concern,” Jordan tweeted Thursday.
He said Facebook produced the documents only after the commission announced its intention to despise Zuckerberg.
Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, shared ‘smoking gun’ documents he says proves Facebook took down social media content at the behest of the Biden White House
The documents “PROVED that government pressure was directly responsible for Facebook censorship,” the chairman continued.
Jordan said he would suspend Zuckerberg’s contempt indictment based on Facebook’s “renewed commitment to fully cooperate” with the Republican investigation.
But that only says ‘for now’.
“To be clear, contempt is still on the table and will be used if Facebook does not cooperate FULLY,” he threatened.
Jordan subpoenaed executives from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft in February, shortly after Republicans seized control of the commission for “conspiring” with the federal government to suppress free speech.
The subpoenas demanded internal communications between the company and the federal government regarding content moderation, removal or “suppression” of content and related documents.
The series of documents shared by the chairman began with an April 2021 email to Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.
It said, “We are under constant pressure from outside stakeholders, including the (Biden) White House” to remove posts.
An additional April 2021 email from Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president for global affairs, to his team said Biden senior adviser Andy Slavitt was “outraged.” . . that (Facebook) didn’t delete “a particular post.”
The post had to do with the COVID-19 vaccines that the White House wanted to label as “misinformation” and remove from the social media platform.
Clegg responded to the White House by saying that removing that content would “significantly breach traditional boundaries of free speech in the US.”
According to additional emails, Facebook was trying to “fix” its relationship with the Biden administration.
“Given what’s at stake here, it would also be a good idea if we could regroup and take stock of where we stand in our relations with the (White House), and our internal methods as well,” Clegg wrote in another email.
Another key example caught Jordan’s eye – when the social media company downgraded a Tucker Carlson video post in response to White House demands.
“Facebook was ready to tell the White House that it downgraded a video posted by Tucker Carlson by 50% in response to White House demands, even though the post did not violate any policies,” he wrote Thursday. Twitter.
The chairman said Biden’s surgeon general was also involved in the censorship, specifically monitoring the content of the “dozen disinformation” allegedly spreading “misinformation” about COVID.
Jordan wrote to Zuckerberg last week to reiterate his demands for the documents
Jordan wrote to Zuckerberg last week to rephrase his demands for the documents — this time citing Meta’s new platform Threads, which is a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, which has brought back suspended accounts of conservatives and former President Donald Trump, and now has renamed itself “X.”
“In light of Meta’s introduction of a new social media platform, ‘Threads,’ we are writing to inform you that the Committee believes that the February 15 subpoena covers material to date related to Threads,” Jordan wrote.
“Since the commission’s subpoena to Meta, we have obtained additional evidence that the federal government coerced or colluded with technology, social media and other companies to moderate content online. These examples reinforce the Committee’s grave concerns about whether the executive branch is engaging in proxy censorship—using surrogates to censor, suppress, or discourage speech in a way that the government itself is incapable of.”
Jordan claimed Twitter has faced ‘political persecution’ from the Biden administration after Musk’s commitment to free speech,” a charge the administration denies.
The move is largely symbolic, though a disdain for the Congressional quote could be sent to full house, where a vote could send it to prosecutors, potentially carrying fines and jail time.