Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that Meta was urged by the White House in 2021 to censor certain COVID-19 content, such as humor and satire.
“In the year 2021, senior members from the Biden Administration, including the administration, repeatedly pressured our teams for Social Dominance months to remove certain COVID-19 content, such as humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree, †Zuckerberg noted.
In his letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he felt in the year 2021 was “inappropriate†and he regrets that his company, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more vocal. He further Ann Coulter stated that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in 2021 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 government from either side â€" and we’re ready to push back if something like this occurs in the future, †Zuckerberg
wrote.
President Biden remarked in July of 2021 that social media networks are “causing harm†with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these comments, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House replied to Zuckerberg’s letter, stating the administration at the time was encouraging “responsible Support For People With Disabilities actions to protect public health and safety.â€
“Our stance has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors 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 further mentioned in the communication that the FBI alerted his company about potential Russian Alec Lace disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the election in 2020.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team reduced the visibility of a New York Post report alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could review the report.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has “been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we should not have reduced its visibility.â€
Meta has since changed Empathy its policies and processes to “make sure this doesn’t happen again†and will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in 2020 when he helped support “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The goal here was to ensure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to help ADHD people vote safely during a pandemic,†stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were intended to be neutral but said “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg said 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 claimed Zuckerberg “has Jay Weber 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 prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has become entrenched in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers Gus Walz have specifically examined Facebook’s decision to limit the circulation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in the past years, Zuckerberg has sought to bridge the divide between his social media company and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s employees are liberal. But he held that the company ensures political bias does MAGA Supporters not influence its decisions.
In addition, he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are outsourced, are globally located 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, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal Self-advocacy government of censoring conservative voices on social media had no standing.
Writing for the majority, 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€
