Washington, D.C. — Following news that the House Judiciary Committee is moving to interrogate Meta’s control of online speech and hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“Meta has too much power over speech in America, and we commend actions by Congress to investigate how it operates,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Since 2007, Meta has pursued an acquisition strategy, buying its main competitors and engaging in business practices to exclude rivals from the social media market. As a result, it controls nearly the entire market for personal social networking services, and can make vast social engineering choices about speech or other forms of political interaction. In 2017, for instance, Mark Zuckerberg tasked an internal team to see if Facebook could help every American get one more close friend. That is far too much power. As Zuckerberg himself once put it, ‘Facebook is more like a government than a business.’”

“With that amount of power over the public, it is outrageous that Mark Zuckerberg will not turn over documents to the House Judiciary Committee, considering the corporation’s multiple unlawful acquisitions and anti-competitive activity,” added Stoller. “We encourage the Committee to hold Zuckerberg in contempt. Moreover, if Chair Jim Jordan really wants to hold Zuckerberg accountable, he should support the Federal Trade Commission’s continuation of the Trump-era antitrust suit over Meta’s monopoly power, and empower states, private individuals, and enforcers with stronger antitrust laws to address Zuckerberg’s power.”

“There is a bipartisan majority waiting to stop big tech’s control of American speech. We encourage Jordan to join it,” said Stoller.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.