The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
The House Judiciary Committee is considering a vote to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt this week, ratcheting up Congress’ feud with Big Tech over its reluctance to work with lawmakers.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan previously gave Mr. Zuckerberg a July 31 deadline to produce internal company documents, but his patience apparently is running thin.
The Ohio Republican’s team said the Judiciary Committee will consider holding the contempt vote this week to put the Facebook co-founder’s feet to the fire.
“Facebook has critical information that it has not turned over to the committee regarding federal government efforts to censor speech online and how Facebook responded to those efforts,” said Russell Dye, Mr. Jordan’s spokesman. “It is imperative the committee get these materials and we will take whatever actions necessary to facilitate that end.”
Time is running out for Congress to take action ahead of its August hiatus. Congress is set to adjourn next week for its monthlong recess.
Last week, Mr. Jordan wrote to Mr. Zuckerberg to tell him he had until 5 p.m. July 31, the day lawmakers are set to go on recess, to answer questions about Threads, Mr. Zuckerberg’s alternative to Twitter.
“Is Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Threads’ already working with the federal government to censor Americans?” Mr. Jordan tweeted last week.
Mr. Jordan is an ally of Twitter owner Elon Musk, who is overhauling his social media platform amid competition from the Threads app that uses Instagram’s infrastructure. Mr. Jordan is investigating the Federal Trade Commission for abuse of power in probing Twitter since Mr. Musk’s takeover.
Mr. Musk is rebranding Twitter as X, carrying forward a theme he has deployed for his artificial intelligence startup “xAI” and his rocket company SpaceX.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said Sunday that X intends to transform the global town square.
“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities,” Ms. Yaccarino tweeted. “Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”
Capitol Hill’s growing pressure on Mr. Zuckerberg comes as Threads looks to have lost momentum. Threads’ daily active user count was down 70% last week from its July 7 high point, while Twitter activity has remained steady, according to information from Sensor Tower obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Zuckerberg has said he remains optimistic about the future of his platform, assailing Twitter’s grip on the microblogging space.
“Early growth was off the charts, but more importantly 10s of millions of people now come back daily. That’s way ahead of what we expected,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on Threads last week. “The focus for the rest of the year is improving the basics and retention.”
