The House Judiciary Committee, led by the GOP, is considering a vote this week to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt, according to a committee spokesperson on Monday. This would further intensify the attack by House Republicans on the social media giant.
Republicans on the Judiciary panel have accused Meta of failing to cooperate with their investigation into the tech giant’s content moderation practices. The committee spokesperson confirmed that a vote is being considered for Thursday.
The panel is currently investigating the communication between tech companies and the federal government. The potential vote comes after a series of hearings on the same topic conducted by the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has denied the committee’s allegations of non-cooperation. The investigation was launched by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) back in February.
In response to the possibility of a vote on Thursday, the Meta spokesperson provided The Hill with the same statement shared last week when Fox Business first reported the committee’s consideration of a vote. The statement emphasized that Meta has already provided over 50,000 pages of documents and made numerous current and former employees available for discussions on both external and internal issues. They expressed their willingness to continue working with the committee moving forward.
Punchbowl News first reported the news of the potential vote later this week.
Russell Dye, spokesperson for Jordan, asserted that Facebook possesses “critical information” that has not been turned over to the committee. This information concerns the federal government’s attempts to censor online speech and how Facebook responded to those efforts. Dye added that it is crucial for the committee to obtain these materials, and they will take any necessary actions to facilitate this.
In February, Jordan issued subpoenas to executives from Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft regarding their communications with the federal government.
Since then, the select weaponization subcommittee has conducted hearings, including one last week featuring long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to explore how companies communicate with the government.
Democrats have criticized the GOP’s investigation, arguing that companies have First Amendment protections to moderate content according to their policies. However, Democrats have also accused tech giants of not doing enough to remove content that spreads misinformation and hate speech, which they believe violates the platforms’ policies.
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