House Republicans want to question Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after he told popular podcaster Joe Rogan that Facebook limited stories on the newsfeed related to the New York Post's story about President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his laptop after warnings from the FBI.
"The background here is the FBI basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was, like, 'Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. ... We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically, there's about to be some kind of dump that's similar to that. So just be vigilant,'" Zuckerberg told Rogan when asked about Facebook's handling of the story.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, a member of the House Oversight Committee, called Facebook's actions "insane."
"This isn't just insane, it's election interference," the Georgia lawmaker tweeted. "The Oversight Committee must immediately invite Mark Zuckerberg to testify — under oath — about the FBI's attempts to circumvent the First Amendment. The American people deserve answers and accountability."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Republicans will take action if they win the House back in the upcoming midterm elections.
"The FBI colluded with Big Tech to silence news stories weeks before the 2020 election in an attempt to control your access to information. Democrats in Congress have been intentionally ignoring the facts. When Republicans are back in charge, we will hold all of them accountable," he tweeted.
Zuckerberg said he regretted Facebook's actions, but maintained that the process was "reasonable."
"I mean, it sucks. Yeah," Zuckerberg said. "It turned out after the fact — the fact-checkers looked into it, and no one was able to say it was false. Right. So basically, it had this period where it was getting less distribution.
"I think the process was pretty reasonable. You know, we still let people share it."