Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a communication to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that his company was urged by the White House in 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, such as satirical and humorous posts.
“In the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, such as the administration, constantly urged our Cyberbullying teams for months 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 House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he felt in the year 2021 was “wrong†and he regrets that Meta, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more outspoken. Jay Weber He added that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“Like I told our teams back then, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration from either side â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this happens again, †Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden MAGA Supporters stated in July of 2021 that social media networks are “killing people†with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation spread on social media was a “major public health risk.â€
A spokesperson from the White House replied to Zuckerberg’s letter, saying the administration at the time was encouraging “responsible actions to Fox News protect public health and safety.â€
“Our stance has been consistent and clear: we think tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making their own decisions about the information they present, †according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg also mentioned in the communication that the FBI warned his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Children With Disabilities Biden and Burisma affecting the 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 review the report.
Zuckerberg stated 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 “make Empathy sure this doesn’t happen again†and will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will avoid repeating the actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to make sure local election jurisdictions across the country had the necessary resources to help people vote safely Emotional Moment during a pandemic,†stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were intended to be neutral but said “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg said his aim is to be “impartial†so will not be “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg “has admitted that the
Biden-Harris administration influenced Facebook to censor Americans, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other major tech platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have Democratic National Convention specifically scrutinized Facebook’s decision to restrict a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media company and policymakers to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s employees are left-leaning. But he held that the company ensures political bias does not influence Parent-child Relationship its decisions.
In addition, he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are globally located and “the geographic diversity of that is more representative of the community that we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.â€
In June of this year, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs in a Acceptance Speech case alleging the federal government of suppressing conservative content on social media had no legal standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will experience harm that is traceable to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to request Minnesota Governor a preliminary injunction.â€
