The House Judiciary Committee sent a letter Monday to Meta, adding its recently launched social media platform Threads to a February subpoena requesting documents relating to censorship attempts by President Joe Biden's administration and federal agencies.
"On Feb. 15, the Committee issued a subpoena to you compelling the production of documents related to content moderation and Meta's engagements with the Executive Branch," Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote to Meta head Mark Zuckerberg on Monday. "In light of Meta's introduction of a new social media platform, 'Threads,' we write to inform you that it is the Committee's view that the subpoena of Feb. 15 covers material to date relating to Threads."
Meta and Zuckerberg announced on July 5 that the company was launching an app built by a team at Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, to share text messages similarly to Twitter.
"Threads is Meta's first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol – we hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services," the company said in the announcement. "Threads will help people find their community, no matter what app they use."
Jordan said in the letter that the committee is concerned that the new social media outlet could exercise the same federal censorship requests Meta is accused of committing in the past.
"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," Jordan wrote. "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."
Reuters reported in February that the committee the CEOs of Meta, Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, asking for documents relating to free speech issues in the wake of the "Twitter Files" reports that the Biden administration pressured big tech companies to suppress speech on various platforms.
"These subpoenas are the first step in holding Big Tech accountable," Jordan's office said in a statement at the time.
Meta and Microsoft told the Wall Street Journal in February that they complied with the request for documents.
"We have started producing documents, are engaged with the committee, and committed to working in good faith," Kate Frischmann, spokeswoman for Microsoft, told the news outlet.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said in the report that the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has "already begun producing documents in response to the committee's requests and will continue to do so moving forward."
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