House GOP considering Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for contempt of Congress, hearing planned

FIRST ON FOX: The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-OH, will move forward with plans to consider holding Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress on Thursday, FOX Business has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge of the proceedings tell FOX Business that Meta — formerly known as Facebook — provided internal documents, but that the Committee was not satisfied with what was received.

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The Judiciary Committee will now hold a markup on Thursday, July 27 at 2:00 p.m. EST on Capitol Hill where if passed through Committee, would go to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

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A Meta spokesperson, when reached for comment by FOX Business, stated in response to the contempt process moving forward, "For many months, Meta has operated in good faith with this committee’s sweeping requests for information. 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. Meta will continue to comply, as we have thus far, with good faith requests from the committee," the spokesperson added.

Jordan, who ascended to the top position on the powerful House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, has aggressively targeted the Big Tech giant for internal documents since serving in the minority on the Committee last Congress.

After Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January, the Judiciary Committee officially issued Meta a subpoena for censorship documentation in February of this year. 

In May, Jordan followed up with Meta to warn that the company’s response was insufficient and failing to comply with the subpoena request for internal communications among Meta employees. 

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."

Specifically, Jordan requested Meta turn over any documents that include "internal meeting notes or discussions of government statements, requests, referrals, or recommendations related to content moderation, including certain documents commemorating findings and/or recommendations regarding whether to apply enforcement actions to purported disinformation."

Now, the Committee, in a scathing report detailing grounds for contempt for Zuckerberg, say Meta has still failed to produce the necessary documents. 

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"Although directly responsive to the Committee’s subpoena, Meta has failed to produce nearly all of the relevant documents internal to the company. To date, Meta has produced only documents between Meta and external entities and a small subset of relevant internal documents. The Committee has a particular need for Meta’s internal documents, which would shed light on how Meta understood, evaluated, and responded to the Executive Branch’s requests or directives to censor content, as well as Meta’s decision-making process to censor viewpoints in the modern town square," the report reads. 

"Having exhausted all available options in obtaining timely compliance, the Chairman of the Committee and the Select Subcommittee recommends that, pursuant to 2 U.S.C. § 192, the House finds Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with the subpoena issued to him," the report continues.