"You may think it's just jolly well to get all this stuff without a warrant that people volunteer to you, but many of us are alarmed that you're getting this information that are private communications between people, because it is against the law," Paul told Wray during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "It's against the law for Facebook, or social media companies to give it to you. But it's also against the law for you to receive it."

Facebook allegedly eavesdropped on private communications of people who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election and passed information to the FBI, according to whistleblowers who talked to the New York Post. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 1,000 page report Nov. 4 detailing allegations of misconduct by the agency.

The agency also faces criticism for allegedly pushing Facebook to suppress so-called "misinformation," including an October 2020 New York Post report on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden.

"Are you taking information that you're getting not through the warrant process, and then going around and coming back and using that as a predicate for getting a warrant to actually get the information you've already been given?" Paul asked Wray, who admitted that the FBI got "tips" from companies and used them to eventually start "lawful processes."