Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets submitting to what he says was pressure by The White House to censor posts about COVID-19 on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s two main social media platforms.
Zuckerberg claims senior officials of the Biden administration “repeatedly” pressured Meta to censor content related to the pandemic on Facebook and Instagram when the pandemic was at its peak.
In a letter to Jim Jordan, the head of the US House of Representatives, Zuckerberg said:
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.”
The Meta boss concluded this statement by saying he believes this pressure was uncalled for.
How did the White House influence the way Facebook managed information during the pandemic?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook added misinformation alerts on posts believed to contain false information on the coronavirus. However, the company also actively deleted posts criticizing COVID vaccines as well as those claiming the virus was manufactured in a Chinese lab.
During the 2020 United States presidential election, Joe Biden accused platforms such as Facebook of “killing people” by allowing misinformation to spread on social media platforms.
In his statement, Zuckerberg reflected on the poor choices of the company and emphasized that “they wouldn’t make [them] today” given the newly available information.
The CEO continued to reflect on his company’s actions during the pandemic in his statement to Jim Jordan. Zuckerberg said:
“As I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction. And we are ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
This statement is especially relevant given that we are currently entering the end game of the 2024 US presidential election, which will take place on November 5, 2024.
Facebook temporarily demoted Hunter Biden laptop story
According to claims made by Mark Zuckerberg in his statement, Facebook purposely demoted the infamous story on Hunter Biden’s laptop after the FBI warned the platform that Russia had coordinated misinformation attacks on the Bidens.
Zuckerberg admitted that since the story did not turn out to be inaccurate, Facebook shouldn’t have demoted the story.
The House Judiciary Committee is controlled by Republicans, and Zuckerberg’s admissions are labeled as a “big win” for free speech.
The Biden administration, however, was clear in its position and put out a statement saying it encouraged responsible actions by social media platforms during the pandemic in favor of the public’s protection.
