Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was influenced by the Biden administration in 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, such as satirical and humorous posts.
“In the year 2021, senior members from the Biden Administration, such as the administration, repeatedly pressured our Gwen Walz teams for an extended period to censor some content about COVID-19, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we did not comply, †Zuckerberg noted.
In his communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the influence he experienced in 2021 was “wrong†and he regrets that his company, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more vocal. Anxiety He added that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†there were decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“Like I told our teams back then, I strongly believe that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction â€" and we’re ready to push back if something like this occurs in the future, †Emotional Moment Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden remarked in July of 2021 that social media platforms are “killing people†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 “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s letter, stating the administration at the time was promoting Political Family Moments “responsible actions to protect public health and safety.â€
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and private entities 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 White House representative.
Zuckerberg also mentioned in the letter that the FBI warned his company about possible Russian Gus Walz disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the election in 2020.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team temporarily demoted reporting from the New York Post accusing Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could review the story.
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 Hope Walz processes to “ensure this does not recur†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 not repeat actions he took in 2020 when he helped support “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to ensure local election authorities across the country had the resources they needed to help people vote safely during
a pandemic,†stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg stated his aim is to be “neutral†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “just admitted that the Biden-Harris Acceptance Speech administration pressured Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have accused Facebook and other major tech platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the narrative has become entrenched in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s Ann Coulter decision to limit the circulation of a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to bridge the divide between his social media giant and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebook’s employees are left-leaning. But he held that the company takes care not to allow political bias to Special Education seep into decisions.
In addition, he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide 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 of this year, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case Social Dominance accusing the federal government of suppressing conservative content on social media had no standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is directly linked to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to seek a Children With Disabilities preliminary injunction.â€
