In a significant disclosure, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed the US House Judiciary Committee that his company faced repeated pressure from senior White House officials in 2021 to censor certain Covid-19-related content. Zuckerberg’s letter, addressed to the Republican-led panel, highlighted concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to influence the moderation of posts on Meta’s platforms, including those involving humor and satire.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that while his company made decisions independently, the external pressure played a role in how Covid-19 content was handled. He expressed regret for not being more vocal about these interactions at the time, emphasizing that with the benefit of hindsight and new information, Meta would have approached the situation differently.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-media-max-width=”560″><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:<br><br>1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. <br><br>2. Facebook censored Americans. <br><br>3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. <br><br>Big win for free speech. <a href=”https://t.co/ALlbZd9l6K”>pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K</a></p>— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) <a href=”https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1828201780544504064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The letter also touched on Meta’s decision during the 2020 presidential election to down-rank a story alleging corruption involving the Biden family, following an FBI warning about possible Russian disinformation. Zuckerberg admitted this action was a mistake, noting that the story was not linked to Russian interference.
The US House Judiciary Committee shared Zuckerberg’s letter on social media, highlighting the CEO’s admission of government pressure and censorship. Elon Musk, in response, suggested this could be a First Amendment violation.
