Zuckerberg claims that the Biden administration asked Meta to block COVID-19 content.
Mark Zuckerberg disclosed that Meta was under pressure from Biden administration officials to remove humorous and satirical information related to COVID-19.
CEO of Meta Platforms Mark Zuckerberg stated that during the pandemic, high-ranking individuals in the Biden administration had put pressure on his social media firm to restrict COVID-19 content. He further stated that he would fight back if this were to occur once more.
In a letter dated August 26, Zuckerberg informed the U.S. House of Representatives judiciary committee that he regretted keeping quiet about this pressure and some decisions the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp had taken about the removal of particular content.
“Our teams were under constant pressure to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, for months in 2021 by senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House. They were very frustrated with our teams when we couldn’t agree,” Zuckerberg wrote in the letter, which was shared on the Committee on the Judiciary’s Facebook page.
He wrote, “I regret we were not more outspoken about the government pressure—I believe it was wrong.” “I also believe that we made some decisions that we wouldn’t make today, given the benefit of hindsight and new information.”
After hours in the United States, a request for comment was not answered by the White House or Meta.
The Republican head of the committee, Jim Jordan, was the recipient of the letter. The committee said in a Facebook post that Zuckerberg had acknowledged that “Facebook censored Americans” and referred to the letter as a “huge win for free speech.”
In order to “not play a role one way or another” in the election in November, Zuckerberg also stated in the letter that he would not be making any contributions to support electoral infrastructure in this year’s presidential election.
The billionaire donated $400 million via the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his philanthropic endeavor with his wife, to support election infrastructure during the last election, which was held in 2020 during the pandemic. This move drew criticism and lawsuits from some groups who said the move was partisan.
