Mark Zuckerberg Accuses Joe Biden Administration Of Pressurising Meta Into Censoring Content Related To Covid-19
Mark Zuckerberg told the panel that back in 2021, senior officials from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humour and satire."
In a letter to the US House Judiciary Committee of the Republican Party, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, asserted that the Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to censor posts related to Covid. Zuckerberg expressed regret for not being "more outspoken" about these pressures and noted that, his social media platform had to make certain modifications that "with the benefit of hindsight and new information," they would not make today.
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What Did The Letter Say?
His letter read, "There’s a lot of talk right now around how the US government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position. Our platforms are for everyone – we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way. As part of this, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety."
He told the panel that back in 2021, senior officials from the White House "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire."
When Meta refused to comply with their demands, the Biden administration expressed a lot of frustration. His letter added, "Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure."
Upon receiving this letter, the US House Judiciary panel posted it on X with a caption that read, "Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech."
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.
2. Facebook censored Americans.
3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
In his letter, Zuckerberg detailed that prior to the 2020 election, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had informed Meta of a potential Russian disinformation campaign aimed at the Biden family and Burisma. Following this alert, Meta chose to reduce the visibility of a story that claimed corruption involving the Biden family. However, Zuckerberg later admitted that this action was a misstep, as the story was not connected to any Russian disinformation efforts.
He said, "That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story."
Elon Musk Takes A Dig
X owner Elon Musk took a veiled dig at the Democrats. While retweeting Zuckerberg's letter on his official X handle, Musk said, "Sounds like a First Amendment violation."
Sounds like a First Amendment violation https://t.co/RjEF8gU0A0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2024
Elon Musk's stance to support Republican US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been quite clear. Hence, this veiled attack was not unexpected.
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