In a significant development, a GOP-led House panel has announced plans to move forward with holding Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress. The Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, has scheduled a markup session to consider a report recommending the full House chamber vote on citing Zuckerberg for allegedly not complying with its demands.

The Committee’s subpoena to Meta, issued on February 15, 2023, required the company to produce material regarding its engagement with the Executive Branch and its decisions and policies regarding content moderation. However, according to the panel’s report, Meta has failed to produce nearly all of the relevant internal documents despite being directly responsive to the subpoena. The committee claims that Meta has only provided documents between the company and external entities and a small subset of relevant internal documents.

In a statement posted on social media, Meta claimed to have operated in “good faith” and to have complied with the committee’s requests for months, even before the subpoena was issued. The company stated that it has delivered over 53,000 pages of documents, both internal and external, and has made several current and former employees available for discussions. Meta pledged to continue complying with the committee’s requests in good faith.

The House Judiciary Committee has expressed its need for Meta’s internal documents, which are expected to shed light on the company’s understanding, evaluation, and response to the Executive Branch’s requests or directives to censor content. The committee argues that these documents will provide insights into Meta’s decision-making process regarding the censorship of viewpoints in the modern town square.

As part of its recommendations, the committee suggests holding Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress. Additionally, the report proposes referring the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and taking all appropriate actions to enforce the subpoena. The committee also hints at the possibility of developing legislation to establish new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to collaborate with technology companies in restricting content circulation and deplatforming users.

It’s worth noting that Zuckerberg is not the only tech executive who was subpoenaed. The House panel also issued subpoenas to top executives from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple in February, with a deadline set for the end of March. While Republicans have focused on the issue of censorship, Democrats have generally expressed more concern about the spread of false information and extremism on social media platforms.

Twitter, which recently rebranded to X, did not appear on the subpoena list. Chairman Jim Jordan had previously commended Twitter for its transparency in interactions with the government over censorship, citing The Twitter Files as an example.

The House panel’s report alludes to an ongoing lawsuit that alleges collusion between the federal government and social media companies to censor speech in violation of the First Amendment. Congress may consider developing legislation to enact new statutory limits on the collaboration between the Executive Branch and technology companies in restricting content circulation and deplatforming users.

The report emphasizes the need for accountability and highlights the potential consequences that Meta and other tech companies could face if found guilty of non-compliance. It remains to be seen how this investigation will unfold and what actions Congress will take to address concerns surrounding censorship and the spread of false information on social media platforms.