Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that Meta was urged by the White House in the year 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, such as satirical and humorous posts.
“In the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, such as the administration, constantly urged Gwen Walz our teams for an extended period to censor some content about COVID-19, such as satirical content, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we did not comply, †Zuckerberg said.
In his communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the pressure he experienced in the year 2021 was “wrong†and he feels regretful that his company, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, Emotional Moment was not more outspoken. Zuckerberg further stated that with the “hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any Administration from either side â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this happens again, Cyberbullying †he wrote.
President Biden stated in July 2021 that social media networks are “causing harm†with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “major public health risk.â€
A White House spokesperson responded to Zuckerberg’s letter, saying the administration at the time was encouraging “responsible measures to safeguard Parent-child Relationship public health.â€
“Our position has been consistent and clear: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present, †according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg further noted in the letter that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, Viral Moment Zuckerberg said, his team temporarily demoted a New York Post report accusing the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could review the report.
Zuckerberg said that since then, it has “become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we should not have reduced its visibility.â€
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “make sure this doesn’t happen again†and will Chasten Buttigieg no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he helped support “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The goal here was to make sure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to help people vote safely during a pandemic,†said the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg Hope Walz mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg stated his goal is to be “neutral†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg “just admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans,
Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other large technology platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the narrative has become entrenched in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s decision to restrict a report by Minnesota Governor the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to limited success.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebook’s employees are liberal. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In addition, he stated Facebook’s content Free Menstrual Products moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and “the geographic diversity of that is more representative of the community that 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 alleging the federal government of censoring Political Family Moments conservative voices on social media had no legal standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will experience harm that is directly linked to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â€