Technology

Jordan, GOP-led panel take steps to hold Zuckerberg in contempt 

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee is moving forward with plans to consider recommending that the House hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress.

GOP members of the panel have accused Meta of not cooperating with its investigation into the company’s content moderation practices.

The committee announced Tuesday that it is slated to consider its report recommending Congress hold Zuckerberg for contempt during a Thursday session.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) launched an investigation in February into how tech companies communicate with the federal government. The vote Thursday comes after a series of hearings on the same topic from the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

A spokesperson for Meta said Tuesday that the company has sent more than 53,000 documents to the committee, a slight uptick from the more than 50,000 documents the company said it shared as of Monday.

“For many months, Meta has operated in good faith with this committee’s sweeping requests for information,” the Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “We began sharing documents before the committee’s February subpoena and have continued to do so.”

“To date we have delivered over 53,000 pages of documents — both internal and external — and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal matters, including some scheduled this very week,” the spokesperson said. “Meta will continue to comply, as we have thus far, with good faith requests from the committee.”

Jordan subpoenaed executives from Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft about their communications with the federal government starting in February. Since then, the weaponization subcommittee has held numerous hearings about the subject.