The House Judiciary Committee is expecting to hold a vote as soon as Thursday to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
Fox Business was the first to report last week that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was strongly considering holding Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress this month.
Sources with direct knowledge of the situation said the move could happen as early as this week and Meta — the parent company of Facebook — has not provided any internal communications regarding the company’s censorship efforts.
On Monday, Punchbowl News also reported that the House Judiciary Committee was considering a vote on the matter this week in what’s considered a "huge escalation of Republicans’ war on Big Tech."
HOUSE GOP CONSIDERS HOLDING ZUCKERBERG IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS
"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," Jordan spokesman Russell Dye said in a statement to Punchbowl. "It is imperative the committee get these materials, and we will take whatever actions necessary to facilitate that end."
Dye confirmed to Fox News Digital on Monday the committee was "considering" a Thursday vote, after Punchbowl had reported the possible timing.
Reached last week when Fox Business first broke news of the potential vote, a Meta spokesperson said, "We have shared over 50,000 pages of documents in response to the committee’s request and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal issues. We look forward to continuing to work with the committee moving forward."
In a July 17 letter, Jordan raised questions to Zuckerberg regarding potential censorship on Meta's new social media platform, "Threads" — an intended rival to Twitter, which owner Elon Musk is rebranding as "X."
The committee first subpoenaed Meta for documents and information on Feb. 15 related to content moderation and Meta's engagements with the executive branch to censor speech.
Jordan's letter cited a July 4 federal court ruling stating that the Biden administration’s collusion with and coercion of social media platforms, including Meta, to censor disfavored speech appeared to have violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights. The court issued a preliminary injunction against government defendants.
"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," Jordan wrote to Zuckerberg. "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."
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Being held in contempt of Congress was a rarity on Capitol Hill for years before Democrats began to frequently employ the measure during former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Fox Business’ Chase Williams and Hillary Vaughn contributed to this report.
