Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces Congressional CONTEMPT this week as Republicans escalate their war on Big Tech
- The committee’s vote could come Thursday
- House Republicans Demand Internal Documents As They Investigate Big Tech
The House Judiciary Committee is hosting a potential vote this week to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress over the battle over documents in the GOP’s investigation of Big Tech.
The Republican-run panel, led by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, is expected to hold the contempt vote Thursday, which could bring the case before the full House.
It would increase the pressure as Republicans in Congress try to force the company to hand over documents that Meta, the owner of Facebook, refuses to hand over.
Facebook has critical information it did not provide to the committee about the federal government’s efforts to censor speech online and how Facebook responded to those efforts. It is imperative that the committee be provided with these materials and we will take whatever action is necessary to facilitate that purpose,” said Judiciary spokesman Russell Dye.
Meta Platforms chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg faces a potential House Judiciary Committee vote this week citing him with contempt for failing to provide documents
“And they have provided zero internal communications between Meta and the federal government as requested in the subpoena,” he told DailyMail.com.
Sources told Fox news last week, the company had failed to provide any documents it had requested through a subpoena.
Punch bowl news reported that the hearing could take place Thursday, a date the panel said it was considering.
Jordan, an ally of Donald Trump, subpoenaed executives from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft in February, shortly after Republicans took control of the committee for “conspiring” with the federal government to suppress free speech.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, subpoenaed Meta and other Big Tech companies. His panel could vote to despise Zuckerberg as early as this week
Zuckerberg has become a jiu-jitsu blue belt and regularly trains in MMA. There is talk of him taking on Twitter boss Elon Musk in a fight
The subpoenas demanded internal communications between the company and the federal government regarding content moderation, removal or “suppression” of content and related documents.
Jordan wrote to Zuckerberg last week to reiterate his demands — this time calling 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 is now rebranding itself as “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 Feb. 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.