As we reported earlier, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s new social media platform — Threads — which is supposed to be a direct competitor to Twitter and just started this month, didn’t get off to an auspicious start with claims of censorship coming right away. They were then hit with a legal cease and desist threat from Twitter owner Elon Musk for misappropriation of trade secrets by allegedly using proprietary information from Twitter.
Now the House Judiciary Committee is looking into allegations of censorship on Threads and is demanding answers by letter from Zuckerberg in a letter Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent out on Monday.
The Committee was already looking into censorship by Meta regarding its other properties, such as Facebook. About a week ago, I wrote about the very troubling news that the FBI, at the direction of the SBU, the Ukrainian spy agency, was allegedly asking social media companies like Meta to censor posts.
Holy crap! @Jim_Jordan has uncovered a massive censorship scandal involving the FBI, the government of Ukraine and Mark Zuckerberg. Stay off Threads!! https://t.co/wJJfeh0m43
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) July 10, 2023
Jordan demanded information and documents from them regarding the censorship on the other platforms. But despite those requests, reports are that Zuckerberg has not provided any of the internal communications requested regarding censorship.
The Committee dropped a subpoena on Meta and Zuckerberg in February. Jordan then followed up in May, warning them that they had not sufficiently complied with the subpoena.
In the letter, Jordan wrote, “Meta’s rolling productions to date have not included material the Committee knows is, or has reason to believe may be, in the company’s possession and that is responsive to the subpoena […] If Meta fails to comply in full with the subpoena’s demands, the Committee may be forced to consider the use of one or more enforcement mechanisms.”
“Other mechanisms” include things like holding Zuckerberg in contempt, which is something that Jordan says he is now considering.
Jordan says he’s considering holding Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress pic.twitter.com/q4pnoyldKe
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 17, 2023
Fox’s Laura Ingraham asked Jordan about it, and he said if Zuckerberg doesn’t comply, he will follow through on his threat. The report was that could happen as early as next week.
Meta claims they have turned over a lot of information.
A Meta spokesperson, when reached for comment by FOX Business, stated in response, “We have shared over 50,000 pages of documents in response to the committee’s request and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal issues. We look forward to continuing to work with the committee moving forward.”
But none of the information provided related to what was asked for, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
It’s about time they hold his feet, not to mention the Biden administration’s feet, to the fire on all this. They’ve had no real consequences for all the censorship, and they don’t think they’ll be held to account. The Republicans have to follow through on such threats, get answers and then do something about it if there’s any hope of getting the Biden administration or these social media platforms to clean up their act. If he doesn’t comply, don’t just posture and talk; hold him accountable and go through with it.