Rep. Jim Jordan, (R-OH) has reportedly asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to hand over documents about content moderation on his new platform Threads as part of the House Judiciary’s ongoing investigation of tech platforms’ policies and contact with the Biden administration.
Rep. Jordan, who is also the House Judiciary Chair, alerted Zuckerberg indicating lawmakers’ newfound focus on Threads, according to the letter, obtained by CNBC News.
Threads, often referred to as a clone of Elon Musk’s Twitter, was launched earlier this month and censored Donald Trump Jr. on its first day.
As Breitbart News reported, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri claims the new social media platform will not “encourage” hard news and politics, adding that it is an app for users who are interested in a “less angry” environment.
While Facebook (now known as Meta) executives claim Threads isn’t supposed to be about politics, the platform nonetheless looks very similar to Twitter, a place where users are known to go to take part in political conversations.
“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 in his letter.
The congressman also pointed out a Wall Street Journal piece reporting that the Federal Trade Commission had asked Twitter to hand over internal communications about Musk and identify journalists who were allowed to access the company’s records.
This inquiry was part of a probe to into whether Twitter was competent enough to still protect user information.
“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,” Rep. Jordan added, pointing to a recent lawsuit against the Biden administration filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana.
In the lawsuit, the attorneys general alleged the federal government had suppressed speech when it tried to get social media platform to control the narrative around the Chinese coronavirus, among other issues.
In his letter, Jordan reportedly noted that the committee’s February subpoena — which was sent to Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft — “is continuing in nature,” suggesting that the probe will now also apply to Threads.
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