House Weighs Vote to Hold Zuckerberg in Contempt

Amid reported Meta refusals to comply with congressional oversight of Big Tech censorship, the House Judiciary Committee is reportedly weighing a potential Thursday vote on a contempt of Congress referral on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the Justice Department.

Myriad government agencies have been exposed by the Twitter Files to have conspired with allies at Big Tech social media companies to throttle down, censor, and even suspend accounts sharing opinions the Biden administration disagrees with.

A vote in the committee chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, would send the vote to the full House, but a Biden DOJ is unlikely to act on any recommendation to hold Democrat ally Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress, Punchbowl News reported Monday.

"Meta has critical information that it has not turned over to the committee regarding federal government efforts to censor speech online and how Meta responded to those efforts," Jordan spokesman Russell Dye told Punchbowl News.

"It is imperative the committee get these materials and we will take whatever actions necessary to facilitate that end."

Newsmax reached out to Meta and Facebook for comment Monday and have not received a response.

Multiple contempt of Congress recommendations were issued against allies of the former Trump administration and the Biden DOJ brought charges against former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former strategist Steve Bannon.

Meta is the publicly traded parent company for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and now Threads, a Twitter-like startup that is alleged to have brought on scores of fired, laid off, or resigning Twitter engineers and information analysts.

Jordan's committee subpoenaed Meta in February, when Jordan also sought information on Big Tech moderation policies at Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet.

"The House Judiciary Committee has repeatedly attempted to engage with the five companies since last December," the committee's release read. "Unfortunately, the companies have not adequately complied with our requests.

"Congress has an important role in protecting and advancing fundamental free speech principles, including by examining how private actors coordinate with the government to suppress First Amendment-protected speech. These subpoenas are the first step in holding Big Tech accountable.

"Today's subpoenas require Sundar Pichai, Andy Jassy, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella to turn over all requested documents and communications by March 23, 2023."

Threads is a new platform released since and Jordan issued a letter last week to Meta seeking information from Threads.

"Since the committee's subpoena to Meta, we have obtained additional evidence that the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies to moderate content online," the letter read, giving a July 31 deadline for a response. "These examples reinforce the committee's serious concerns about whether the Executive Branch is engaging in censorship by proxy — using surrogates to censor, suppress, or discourage speech in a manner that the government is unable to do itself.

"In fact, on July 4, 2023, a federal court held that the government's collusion with and coercion of social media platforms to censor disfavored speech appeared to have violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights, and issued a preliminary injunction against government defendants.

"The court recognized that Meta played a central role in this censorship scheme, frequently acquiescing and catering to the government's requests and demands."

Meta has turned over 53,000 pages of documents in 18 rounds of production, and 10 Meta staffers will have conducted voluntary interviews with the House Judiciary Committee by the end of the week, a source told Punchbowl News.

• Report: Jim Jordan May Hold Zuckerberg in Contempt
• House Panel Includes Threads in Social Media Probe