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WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol issued subpoenas to the four major social media companies — Alphabet, Meta, Reddit and Twitter — on Thursday, criticizing them for allowing extremism to spread on their platforms and saying they were uncooperative. Enough with the investigation.

In letters accompanying the subpoena, the panel lists Facebook, a unit of Meta, and YouTube, owned by Alphabet’s Google subsidiary, among the worst offenders contributing to the spread of misinformation and violent extremism. The committee said it was investigating how companies “contributed to the violent assault on our democracy, and what steps, if any, social media companies were taking to prevent their platforms from becoming a breeding ground for radicalizing people into violence.”

“It’s disappointing that after months of engagement we still don’t have the documents and information needed to answer these fundamental questions,” said Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democratic Representative, chair of the panel.

The commission sent a letter in august It is seeking documents on 15 social media companies – including sites that spread misinformation about election fraud, such as the pro-Trump website TheDonald.win – and any local violent extremists linked to the January 6 rally and attack.

After months of negotiations with companies, only four major companies were subpoenaed on Thursday, as the committee said it was “unwilling to voluntarily and quickly commit” to cooperate with the firms’ work. A committee aide said investigators are at various stages of negotiations with other companies.

In the last year since the January 6 events, social media companies have been heavily scrutinized as to whether their sites played an instrumental role in organizing the attack.

In the months surrounding the 2020 election, employees within Meta have warned of the rapid spread of Facebook posts and comments containing “flammable election misinformation” on the social network. Cache of documents and photos reviewed by The New York Times. Many of these employees have criticized Facebook leadership’s inaction when it comes to the spread of the QAnon conspiracy group, which they say contributed to the attack.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower, said the company loosened security measures too quickly after the election, which later led to its use in the storming of the Capitol.

Critics say that while contributing to the January 6 events, other platforms also played an instrumental role in spreading misinformation.

Reddit in the days after the attack banned the discussion forum Dedicated to former President Donald J. Trump, with whom tens of thousands of Mr. Trump supporters regularly gather to express solidarity with him.

On Twitter, many of Mr Trump’s followers have used the site to amplify and spread false allegations of election fraud while connecting with other Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists using the site. And on YouTube, some users are posting the January 6 events using the platform’s video streaming technology.

Representatives of the tech companies are in talks with the research committee, but it remains unclear how much evidence or user records the firms have submitted.

The committee said letters sent to the four firms accompanied the subpoena.

panel said YouTube It served as a platform for “important communications by its users regarding the planning and execution of the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6,” including live broadcasts of the attack that took place.

“To date, YouTube is a platform where user videos spread misinformation about the election,” Mr Thompson wrote.

panel said Facebook and other Meta platforms “hatred, violence and incitement; spreading election misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories; and to coordinate or attempt to coordinate the Stop the Steal movement.”

The panel said public accounts related to Facebook’s civil integrity team showed that Facebook had documents critical to the elite committee’s investigation.

Mr Thompson wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO: “Meta refused to set a deadline for producing or even identifying these materials.

panel Said he was focusing on Reddit because the platform hosted the r/The_Donald sub-reddit community, which grew significantly before migrating to TheDonald.win website in 2020, and ultimately hosted significant discussions and planning regarding the January 6 attack.

inspectors said Twitter subscribers He used the platform to plan and execute the attack on the Capitol, and Twitter reportedly warned of potential violence planned on the site. Twitter users have also made communications that reinforce allegations of election fraud, including by Mr Trump.

“Unfortunately, the select committee believes Twitter has failed to disclose critical information,” the panel said.

In recent years, Big Tech and Washington have had a history of mind blowing. Some Republicans have accused sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter of silencing conservative voices.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether a number of tech companies have gotten too big and abuse their market power to stifle competition in the process. And a bipartisan group of senators and representatives continues to say that sites like Facebook and YouTube are not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Google said in a statement that it was cooperating with the committee and that the company had “strict policies outlawing content that incites violence or undermines electoral confidence” until January 6. today.”

“We have and will continue to do so,” Meta said, “that committee staff have prepared documents to the committee according to the schedule requested by them.”

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment.

A Reddit spokesperson said the firm received the subpoena and “will continue to work with the committee on their request.”

The panel interviewed more than 340 witnesses and issued dozens of subpoenas, including bank and phone records.