House Judiciary Committee to vote on whether to cite Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives at federal court in San Jose, California, Dec. 20, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to cite Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress for what it says is a failure to provide adequate documents in connection with an earlier subpoena in the panel’s online censorship investigation.
Meta and Zuckerberg “have willfully refused to comply in full with a congressional subpoena,” that sought to collect documents on the company’s communications with the Biden administration and its content moderation decisions, the committee alleged in its contempt report. The committee called Meta’s compliance with the subpoena “woefully inadequate.”
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If the committee votes to cite Zuckerberg in contempt, the resolution will then need to pass the House floor. A criminal contempt case, as the committee suggests, could be referred to the Justice Department, which could decide whether to take up the case.
The initial subpoena was part of an investigation into Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, alongside Meta, to “understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote when he issued the orders to turn over documents in February.
Since then, Jordan has expanded the inquiry into Meta to include its new Twitter competitor Threads. Jordan wrote that he considered content moderation documents about Threads to be subject to the earlier subpoena.
“Although directly responsive to the Committee’s subpoena, Meta has failed to produce nearly all of the relevant documents internal to the company,” the contempt report says. “To date, Meta has produced only documents between Meta and external entities and a small subset of relevant internal documents. The Committee has a particular need for Meta’s internal documents, which would shed light on how Meta understood, evaluated, and responded to the Executive Branch’s requests or directives to censor content, as well as Meta’s decision-making process to censor viewpoints in the modern town square.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement that Meta has “operated in good faith” with the committee’s broad requests.
“To date we have delivered over 53,000 pages of documents — both internal and external — and have made nearly a dozen current and former employees available to discuss external and internal matters, including some scheduled this very week,” Stone wrote. “Meta will continue to comply, as we have thus far, with good faith requests from the committee.”
But the contempt report alleges that since the subpoena was issued, on Feb. 15, “Meta has produced communications between Meta and external entities and fewer than 40 pages of internal documents. Despite clear instructions in the Committee’s subpoena and repeated requests from Committee staff, Meta has thus far failed to produce nearly all of the requested internal communications related to its Executive Branch interactions.”
“The Committee negotiated extensively, offering significant accommodations, to try to reach an agreement,” the report continues, but Meta rejected those proposals and “offered a paltry production of internal documents on July 24.”
WATCH: The messy business of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs live at San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy, in July 2017.
Mairo Cinquetti | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Astronomer‘s interim CEO said in his first public comment since unexpectedly taking over the role on Saturday that he hopes to move the tech startup past the viral moment that captured national attention last week.
Pete DeJoy was appointed to the top job due to the resignation of CEO Andy Byron, days after he was caught on video in an intimate moment with the company’s head of human resources at a Coldplay concert. Astronomer said over the weekend that it would begin a search for a new CEO.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,” DeJoy wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”
Byron was shown on a big screen at the concert in Boston on Wednesday with his arms around Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. Byron, who is married with children, immediately hid when the couple was shown on screen. Lead singer Chris Martin said, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” A concert attendee’s video of the affair went viral.
DeJoy helped start Astronomer in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, and had been serving as chief product officer since earlier this year.
In May, Astronomer announced a $93 million investment round led by Bain Ventures and other investors, including Salesforce Ventures.
“I’m stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers,” DeJoy wrote. He added that “our story is very much still being written.”
Astronomer is commercializing the open-source data operations platform Astro. DeJoy wrote that customers “trust us with their most ambitious data & AI projects” and that “we’re here because the mission is bigger than any one moment.”
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma Inc., after the morning sessions at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 11, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Design software company Figma on Monday published an updated prospectus for its initial public offering.
The company said it expects to sell about 37 million shares at $25 to $28 each. That would generate as much as $1 billion in proceeds, between the company and selling shareholders.
The IPO could value Figma, led by co-founder Dylan Field, a fully diluted valuation of $14.6 billion to $16.4 billion. Field plans to sell 2.35 million shares, which could be worth as much as $65.8 million.
In a 2024 tender offer, investors valued the company at $12.5 billion. In 2022, Adobe had agreed to acquire Figma for $20 billion, but the deal was scrapped after regulators objected.
The flow of technology companies joining U.S. exchanges has slowed since late 2021. Concerns over inflation and a recession made some investors less interested in backing fast-growing but money-losing companies.
But a few technology stocks have become available in recent months. CoreWeave went public in March, and Circle and Chime shares started trading in June.
Figma filed to go public on July 1, announcing plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIG.”
On Monday, it provided preliminary results for the second quarter, showing $9.0 million to $12.0 million in operating income on $247 million to $250 million in revenue. That would imply year-over-year revenue growth of 39% at the low end and 41% at the high end. Growth in the first quarter exceeded 46%.
During the second quarter, Figma added clients and expanded business with existing ones. The company’s operating margin would be ticking up to 4% to 5%, up from 3% in the same quarter a year ago, based on the preliminary results.
Figma said it has authorized the issuance of “blockchain common stock” in the form of “blockchain-based tokens.” So far, though, Figma said it isn’t planning to issue this type of stock. In July, Figma disclosed investments in a stablecoin and a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Mike Krieger, a co-founder of Instagram who is now chief product officer of artificial intelligence model developer Anthropic, has joined the board. Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, is also joining the board, according to the filing.
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