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Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that Meta was pressured by the White House in 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, such as humor and satire.
âIn the year 2021, senior members from the Biden Administration, such as the administration, constantly urged our Hope Walz teams for an extended period to remove certain COVID-19 content, including satirical content, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we did not comply, â Zuckerberg said.
In his communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the pressure he felt in 2021 was âwrongâ and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more vocal. He further stated Chasten Buttigieg that with the âbenefit of hindsight and new information,â some decisions made in that year that âwouldnât be made today.â
âLike I told our teams back then, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any government from either side â" and weâre ready to push back if something like this happens again, â Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden remarked in
July 2021 that social media platforms are âcausing harmâ with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these comments, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation spread on social media was a âmajor public health risk.â
A White House spokesperson replied to Zuckerbergâs letter, saying the administration at the time was encouraging âresponsible actions to protect public health and safety.â
âOur stance Tim Walz has been consistent and clear: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making their own decisions about the content they share, â according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the communication that the FBI warned his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, Children With Disabilities Zuckerberg said, his team temporarily demoted reporting from the New York Post accusing Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the report.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has âbeen made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we should not have reduced its visibility.â
Meta has since changed its policies and processes to âensure this does not recurâ and will no Acceptance Speech longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will avoid repeating the actions he took in 2020 when he assisted âelectoral infrastructure.â
âThe goal here was to ensure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to help people vote safely during a pandemic,â said the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were intended Viral Moment to be neutral but said âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â Zuckerberg said his goal is to be âimpartialâ so will not be âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg âjust admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook Social Dominance limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have claimed Facebook and other large technology platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the narrative has gained a firm foothold in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebookâs decision to limit the circulation of a report by the Online Bullying New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in recent years, Zuckerberg has attempted to bridge the divide between his social media company and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebookâs staff are liberal. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In addition, he said Facebookâs content moderators, Mike Crispi many of whom are contractors, are globally located and âour 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 decided 6-3 that the plaintiffs in a case accusing the federal government of censoring conservative voices on Fox News social media had no legal standing.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, âto prove standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is directly linked to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âbecause no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â