WASHINGTON — The top Republican on a key House subcommittee threatened to issue a subpoena to the Biden administration Thursday as her panel probes whether the federal government is attempting to limit information being shared on social media platforms ahead of November’s elections.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation, is seeking communications between the administration and social media companies, like Facebook-owner Meta.
The subpoena threat, shared first with NBC News, comes after Mace requested that information in September and the administration did not respond. In a letter to the White House, obtained by NBC News, Mace wrote that it is the responsibility of the administration to be transparent about their interactions with social media companies before the election, so voters are aware of what steps the government may be taking to limit the flow of certain types of information.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has advertised its willingness to manipulate the content of social media sites,” Mace wrote, pointing to the administration’s 2021 admission that it worked with social media companies to flag misinformation on their platforms, including related to Covid-19.
“The White House has not apologized for this activity or indicated that it would cease and desist from engaging in such behavior,” Mace continued.
Conservatives have accused the White House of pressuring companies like Meta and Twitter to take down content that didn’t serve the administration politically. The Supreme Court this summer, however, threw out claims that the Biden administration had illegally pressed social media companies to moderate content, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett writing for the majority that the platforms had “independently” “strengthened” their moderation policies before the Biden administration got involved.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote to House Republicans in August confirming that White House officials had pressured the company to censor certain material related to Covid-19, and while the platform did comply with some of their requests, he said he now regrets that decision.
Mace pointed to statements made by the Federal Communications Commission’s top Republican, Brendan Carr, as an example of possible attempts by the administration to suppress content. Carr posted on X an example of a Facebook post critical of the Biden-Harris administration that was labeled as misinformation by the platform, citing independent third-party fact-checkers. After Carr publicly complained about the posts being flagged, Meta reviewed the posts and determined that the fact-checking process did not meet their standards and removed the disinformation flag.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on Mace’s letter. But the company said that it removed the post Carr publicly flagged because it fell outside of its rating guidelines for fact-checkers.
The new letter requests documents from the White House, including: all communications with social media companies and any private sector entity concerning the concealment or suppression of information on their sites and all communications between federal employees related to any discussion of concealment or suppression of information with social media companies and any private sector entity from Jan. 1, 2024, until now.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said that the subpoena threat is an overreaction and that the real problem is Republicans.
“The only evidence of collusion with a social media company is the Trump campaign’s questionable relationship with Elon Musk, the owner of X, who is doling out million-dollar checks at campaign rallies in potential violation of federal campaign finance law,” he said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
CORRECTION (Oct, 24, 2024, 4:32 p.m.): A previous version of this article misstated the nature of Rep. Mace’s letter to the Biden administration. She threatened to issue a subpoena but has not yet issued one.
