Senate Committee Seeks Subpoena Against Facebook and Twitter Leaders

October 22, 2020 by Tom Ramstack
Senate Committee Seeks Subpoena Against Facebook and Twitter Leaders
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addresses students at Georgetown University. (Photo by Dan McCue)

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee voted to subpoena the chief executives of Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. Thursday over what its chairman called censorship of information potentially embarrassing to presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The social media giants limited the sharing of New York Post articles that said Biden’s son used his family influence to assist his business associates at a Ukrainian company.

The newspaper articles were reportedly based on emails taken from a computer allegedly belonging to Biden’s son, Hunter. The first article said Hunter tried to introduce an executive at the Ukrainian company that employed him to his father, who was then vice president.

Democratic frontrunner Biden has called the New York Post stories a “smear.” He denies their accuracy.

Facebook and Twitter officials initially said sharing links to the articles appeared to violate their privacy policy on hacked information. Their policies ban posting of private or stolen information like email addresses and phone numbers without the owners’ permission.

After internal investigations and media reports of their limits on the information, Facebook and Twitter officials lifted the restrictions.

However, some Republicans said Facebook and Twitter gave inadequate explanations. 

They also questioned whether the companies were trying to protect Biden’s presidential campaign from potentially embarrassing disclosures.

Normally congressional committees obtain information by asking witnesses to appear at hearings to testify voluntarily. A subpoena indicates the senators were trying to compel the testimony of chief executives Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

The vote was unanimous among the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 12 Republicans. Democrats boycotted the business meeting to protest the nomination to the Supreme Court of Amy Coney Barrett.

The subpoena would “hopefully give us some leverage to secure their testimony,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It also continues recent concern mentioned in several congressional hearings that Facebook, Twitter and Google are getting too big and powerful with the way they control content on their Internet platforms.

The chief executives of all three companies are scheduled to testify next week before the Senate Commerce Committee on their policies for posting and controlling content. Occasionally they have been accused of bias against conservatives.

Some members of Congress suggest modifying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media companies from liability for user content.

The Senate Judiciary Committee motion for a subpoena against Facebook and Twitter seeks information about “any other content moderation policies, practices, or actions that may interfere with or influence elections for federal office.”

A+
a-
  • Congress
  • Social Media
  • subpoenas
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Social Media

    May 16, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    YouTube Personality ‘Doctor Mike’ Finally Gets Taken Seriously

    WASHINGTON — It’s a moment “Doctor Mike” Varshavski still describes as both a blessing and a curse. Here he was,... Read More

    WASHINGTON — It’s a moment “Doctor Mike” Varshavski still describes as both a blessing and a curse. Here he was, a young doctor in the middle of his residency in 2015, when thanks to his presence on Instagram, he found himself in the pages of People... Read More

    April 15, 2025
    by Tom Ramstack
    Meta’s Zuckerberg Defends Against Allegations of Monopoly Tactics

    WASHINGTON — Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified for a second day Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., court that... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified for a second day Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., court that his company has encouraged the growth of social media but not the anticompetitive dominance alleged by the Federal Trade Commission. The trial in the antitrust case... Read More

    April 11, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Social Media Personality ‘Doctor Mike’ to Speak at National Press Club

    WASHINGTON — YouTube personality “Doctor Mike” Varshavski, whose bête noire is health misinformation on social media and in the pod-o-sphere,... Read More

    WASHINGTON — YouTube personality “Doctor Mike” Varshavski, whose bête noire is health misinformation on social media and in the pod-o-sphere, will speak at the National Press Club on Friday, May 30. The Headliners event will begin with dinner in the club’s ballroom at 8 p.m. and... Read More

    March 10, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Cyberattack Puts X on Ice as Social Media Platform Suffers Multiple Outages

    WASHINGTON — If at first you don’t succeed, hit retry and retry and retry again. That was the message from... Read More

    WASHINGTON — If at first you don’t succeed, hit retry and retry and retry again. That was the message from Elon Musk’s X as the social media platform experienced multiple outages on Monday. Musk attributed the outages to a "massive" and unusual cyberattack. “We get attacked... Read More

    January 10, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Justices Seem Inclined to Uphold Law That Could Shut Down TikTok

    WASHINGTON — Over the course of more than two hours of oral arguments, a majority of Supreme Court justices appeared... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Over the course of more than two hours of oral arguments, a majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to be inclined to uphold a federal law passed last year that would require that TikTok be sold or face being shut down in the United... Read More

    January 8, 2025
    by Tom Ramstack
    Meta Faces Legal Challenges as It Ends Fact-Checking Program

    WASHINGTON — Social media giant Meta appears to be headed into a legal quagmire after its chief executive officer announced... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Social media giant Meta appears to be headed into a legal quagmire after its chief executive officer announced Tuesday his company would cease fact-checking and censorship of controversial material in user posts on Facebook and Instagram. Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the censorship... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top