Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday that his company was pressured by the White House in 2021 to limit certain COVID-19 content, such as humor and satire.
“In the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden White House, such as the administration, repeatedly pressured our Emotional Moment teams for an extended period to remove some content about COVID-19, including satirical content, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we did not comply, †Zuckerberg noted.
In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the pressure he felt in 2021 was “inappropriate†and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more outspoken. Cyberbullying Zuckerberg added that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this happens again, †Zuckerberg Political Family Moments wrote.
President Biden stated in July 2021 that social media networks are “killing people†with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised these comments, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation spread on social media was a “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s communication, saying the administration at the time was promoting “responsible measures Empathy to safeguard public health.â€
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we think tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the public, while making their own decisions about the content they share, †according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the Social Media Criticism 2020 election.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team temporarily demoted reporting from the New York Post alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the story.
Zuckerberg said that since then, it has “become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.â€
Meta has since changed its policies and processes to “ensure this does not recur†and Nonverbal Learning Disorder will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will avoid repeating the actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted “election infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to make sure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,†stated the MAGA Supporters Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg stated his goal is to be “neutral†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “has admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook Ann Coulter to censor Americans, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other major tech platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the perception has become entrenched in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically scrutinized Facebook’s decision to Democratic National Convention limit the circulation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s staff are left-leaning. But he maintained that the company ensures political bias does not influence its decisions.
In addition, he said
Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and “our global team better represents the diversity of the community we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.â€
In June of this year, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs in a case accusing the federal government of Tim Walz censoring conservative voices on social media had no legal standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will experience harm that is directly linked to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.â€
