During a meeting with Twitter officials Thursday, the staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee floated that they may subpoena the company’s CEO to get him to come speak before the panel, Politico reported.
According to a Republican familiar with the conversation who spoke to Politico, the committee believes that Twitter has been “stonewalling” them in their efforts to get Jack Dorsey to testify about the company’s data and content policies. The House committee’s chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) tweeted out a “formal invitation” to Dorsey on Thursday, asking the CEO to appear on Sept. 5, but a company spokesperson told Politico that it had made no final decisions.
.@Jack, I appreciate your willingness to speak publicly on issues facing Twitter and agree complex algorithms must be better communicated to consumers. After many good faith efforts from staff, this is your formal invitation to appear before @HouseCommerce on Sept. 5.
— Rep. Greg Walden (@repgregwalden) August 16, 2018
Twitter has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks over its handling of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. As nearly every social media platform either blocked or banned Jones’ content, Twitter only temporarily restricted Jones’ content.
