Staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee raised the possibility of a subpoena to get Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before the panel, during a tense meeting with representatives of the company Thursday, according to a Republican source familiar with the discussion.

The source said Twitter is "delaying" and "stonewalling" the committee, which has been negotiating over the past few weeks to try to arrange Dorsey's testimony about the company's data and content policies.


House E&C Chairman Greg Walden later tweeted at Dorsey: "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."

Asked for comment, a Twitter spokesman responded: "We remain in discussions with the Committee and no decisions have been made either way."

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Dorsey is already slated to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to discuss Russian election interference, along with with executives from Facebook and Google, on Sept. 5.

In an op-ed today, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has called on Dorsey to testify before the House Energy and Commerce panel, amplified his argument that Twitter and other social media companies are biased against conservative views in the way they treat content.


At the same time, Twitter is dealing with criticism for its handling of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, founder of the far-right website InfoWars. Twitter restricted the accounts of Jones and InfoWars this week, but critics said the company took too long to do so.