House Republicans want to haul Mark Zuckerberg in front of Congress to explain himself after the Meta chief admitted Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.

In a surprise appearance Thursday on the Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg revealed that the company's decision to clamp down on the dissemination of the laptop story came after the FBI warned the company that Russia-backed campaigns may dump misinformation ahead of the 2020 election. The remarks have sparked outrage among many Republicans.

"This isn’t just insane, it’s election interference. The Oversight Committee must immediately invite Mark Zuckerberg to testify — under oath — about the FBI’s attempts to circumvent the First Amendment. The American people deserve answers and accountability," Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) tweeted.

Clyde sits on the powerful House Oversight Committee, which serves as a major investigative body in the lower chamber. Current Oversight Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who recently lost her primary race for reelection, has not yet signaled an eagerness to call on Zuckerberg for testimony. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hinted Republicans will take action if they regain the House.

"The FBI colluded with Big Tech to silence news stories weeks before the 2020 election in an attempt to control your access to information. Democrats in Congress have been intentionally ignoring the facts. When Republicans are back in charge, we will hold all of them accountable," he tweeted.

During the interview, Rogan pressed Zuckerberg on Big Tech's handling of the New York Post's story on Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020, pointing to Twitter's decision to stop users from sharing the story. Zuckerberg said that while Facebook didn't stop users from sharing the story outright, the company opted to limit its spread. He stressed that an FBI warning overshadowed the decision.

"The background here is the FBI basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was, like, 'Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. ... We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically, there's about to be some kind of dump that's similar to that. So just be vigilant,'" Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg noted that he could not recall if the FBI told the company it needed to be on guard about the laptop story specifically. He previously divulged the FBI warning during a Senate committee hearing shortly after a firestorm erupted over the suppression of the laptop story, but his recent remarks on Rogan's podcast sparked renewed controversy.

In the time since the New York Post story was suppressed, multiple outlets, including the Washington Examiner, have obtained copies of the hard drive and corroborated much of the New York Post's reporting. It has also become a rallying cry for conservatives seeking to rein in Big Tech's censorship powers on public discourse.

When pressed by Rogan, Zuckerberg voiced regret for Facebook's actions, but he maintained that the process was "reasonable."

"I mean, it sucks. Yeah," Zuckerberg said. "It turned out after the fact — the fact-checkers looked into it, and no one was able to say it was false. Right. So basically, it had this period where it was getting less distribution."

"I think the process was pretty reasonable. You know, we still let people share it," he added.