Judiciary Committee Raises Questions About Potential Censorship on Threads
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg raising questions about potential censorship on Meta's new social media platform, "Threads." The Committee first subpoenaed Meta for documents and information on February 15, 2023, related to content moderation and Meta's engagements with the Executive Branch to censor speech.
Excerpts of the letter:
"Since the Committee's subpoena to Meta, we have obtained additional evidence that the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies to moderate content online. These examples reinforce the Committee's serious concerns about whether the Executive Branch is engaging in censorship by proxy—using surrogates to censor, suppress, or discourage speech in a manner that the government is unable to do itself.
"In fact, on July 4, 2023, a federal court held that the government's collusion with and coercion of social media platforms to censor disfavored speech appeared to have violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights, and issued a preliminary injunction against government defendants. The court recognized that Meta played a central role in this censorship scheme, frequently acquiescing and catering to the government's requests and demands.
"Congress has an important interest in protecting and advancing fundamental free speech principles. To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with technology companies to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee on the Judiciary must first understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech.
"Given that Meta has censored First Amendment-protected speech as a result of government agencies' requests and demands in the past, the Committee is concerned about potential First Amendment violations that have occurred or will occur on the Threads platform. Indeed, Threads raises serious, specific concerns because it has been marketed as rival of Elon Musk's Twitter, which has faced political persecution from the Biden Administration following Musk's commitment to free speech. In contrast, there are reports that Threads will enforce 'Instagram’s community guidelines,' which resulted in lawful speech being moderated following pressure by the government. Despite launching only 12 days ago, there are reports that Threads is already engaging in censorship, including censoring users but offering no grounds for appeal.
"The Committee's February 15 subpoena to Meta requires, among other things, the production of material concerning Meta's engagement with the Executive Branch and Meta's decisions and policies regarding content moderation. The subpoena is continuing in nature, and the instructions and definitions accompanying the subpoena make clear that documents and information related to Threads, a social media platform as described and marketed by Meta, are within the scope of the subpoena. Thus, to aid the Committee's oversight obligations, we ask that you please produce all documents and information related to Threads that are responsive to the terms of the Committee's subpoena. Please produce all documents and information as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 p.m. on July 31, 2023. In addition, please treat these discovery obligations as ongoing and applicable to any information generated after receipt of this letter."
Read the full letter to Mark Zuckerberg here.
###