Jim Jordan Wants More Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, Threatens Contempt To Get It
Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns from Latvia, CC BY 2.0
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) has a fever, and the only thing that will ease it is more Mark Zuckerberg headlines.
News: The House Judiciary Committee is considering a vote this week to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt. While this is a mostly symbolic step for the House GOP majority, it would be a huge escalation of Republicans’ war on Big Tech — if it happens.
Judiciary Republicans claim Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, hasn’t been cooperating with the panel’s effort to investigate potential censorship by Big Tech, including the failure to hand over internal company documents.
“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,” Russell Dye, spokesperson for Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told us.
“It is imperative the committee get these materials and we will take whatever actions necessary to facilitate that end,” Dye added.
The committee is eyeing voting on the resolution Thursday, according to multiple sources.
A Meta spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment on Sunday night.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed Meta back in mid-February along with several other tech giants — Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet — about the companies’ content moderation policies.
And Jordan sent a letter to Zuckerberg last week raising questions about Threads, the company’s new competitor to Twitter.
But in reality, Republicans have been targeting the major tech companies even before officially taking over the House, promising to investigate so-called conservative censorship dating back to the 2020 election.
Democrats insist Republicans are just trying to gin up their fundraising heading into the August recess and protect GOP-friendly Twitter owner Elon Musk. Or that should be “X owner Elon Musk.”
Meta Platforms Inc. has turned over 53,000 pages of documents in 18 rounds of production since being subpoenaed earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the investigation. In addition, 10 Meta staffers will have completed voluntary interviews with the panel by the end of this week.
A Democratic spokesperson declined to comment.
I think its important to note that the Republicans are NOT waging a war on Big Tech. They are completely at peace with Twitter and Elon Musk in general.
Its important to note this because calling it a war on Big Tech hides the anti-democratic nature of it, where the Republicans are using government power to harass and punish their political enemies like Disney.Report
LOL. “Censorship”.Report