Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was influenced by the White House in 2021 to limit certain COVID-19 content, including satirical and humorous posts.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden White House, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams Gus Walz for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including satirical content, and showed significant 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 experienced in the year 2021 was “inappropriate†and he feels regretful that his company, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more vocal. He added Political Family Moments that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in 2021 that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any government from either side â€" and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again, †Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden Democratic National Convention remarked in July 2021 that social media platforms are “causing harm†with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s letter, saying the administration at the time was encouraging “responsible measures to safeguard Viral Video public health.â€
“Our stance has been consistent and clear: we think tech companies and other private actors should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making their own decisions about the content they share, †according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg also mentioned in the communication that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma Free Menstrual Products affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team reduced the visibility of 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 “become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have reduced its visibility.â€
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “ensure Minnesota Governor this does not recur†and will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he helped support “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to ensure local election jurisdictions across the country had the necessary resources to help people vote safely during a Viral Moment pandemic,†stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but said “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†He stated his aim is to be “neutral†so will not be “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “just admitted that the Biden-Harris administration Support For People With Disabilities pressured Facebook to censor Americans, Facebook restricted content, 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 biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the narrative has gained a firm foothold in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically Ann Coulter scrutinized Facebook’s decision to restrict a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media giant and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s employees are liberal. But he maintained that the company ensures political bias does not influence its decisions.
In addition,
he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are globally located 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, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs in a case alleging the federal government of suppressing Vice Presidential Nominee conservative content on social media had no standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will experience harm that is directly linked to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â€
