Republicans in the US House of Representatives have demanded that social media giant Facebook should preserve any communication it had with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). This comes into light in connection with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealing on Joe Rogan’s podcast on August 25, 2022 that the company had decided to limit the spread of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop when the FBI warned the company about Russian propaganda before the 2020 presidential elections.

The GOP members had earlier accused Facebook of not providing “complete responses” about how it had handled the Hunter Biden laptop case. The Republican members of the oversight as well as judiciary committees, in an open letter they wrote to Facebook, stated, “Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, Facebook suppressed an explosive New York Post article detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father, now-President Biden, for personal gain, with the apparent awareness of President Biden”.

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The letter also instructs Zuckerberg to preserve all communications his company should preserve existing as well as future records of communication with the FBI: “You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry.”

The Meta newsroom has also responded to the claims, saying that “The FBI shared general warnings about foreign interference – nothing specific about Hunter Biden.”

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The FBI has responded to the comments Zuckerberg had made on the podcast by pointing out that it is not unusual for the law enforcement agency to often warn private companies against information threats. The agency said that it “routinely notifies U.S. private sector entities, including social media providers, of potential threat information, so that they can decide how to better defend against threats.”