Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that his company was influenced by the White House in 2021 to limit content related to COVID-19, such as satirical and humorous posts.
“In the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, constantly urged Special Education our teams for an extended period to remove some content about COVID-19, such as humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we did not comply, †Zuckerberg noted.
In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he experienced in the year 2021 was “wrong†and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, Social Dominance was not more outspoken. He added that with the “hindsight and new information,†there were decisions made in 2021 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 from either side â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this occurs in the future, †Tim Walz Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden remarked in July 2021 that social media platforms are “causing harm†with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised 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 White House spokesperson responded to Zuckerberg’s letter, saying the administration at the time was promoting “responsible measures to safeguard Viral Video public health.â€
“Our stance 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 independent choices about the information they present, †according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian firm Burisma Emotional Moment affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, he said, his team temporarily demoted a New York Post report alleging the Biden family of 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 retrospect, we should not have reduced its visibility.â€
Meta has since changed its policies and processes to “ensure this Alec Lace 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 stated he will avoid repeating the actions he took in 2020 when he assisted “election 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,†stated the Kamala Harris Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg said his goal is to be “neutral†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “has admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to Parent-child Relationship censor Americans, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have claimed Facebook and other large technology platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s decision to limit Free Menstrual Products the circulation of a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s staff are left-leaning. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In
addition, he said 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 of this year, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal government Nonverbal Learning Disorder of censoring conservative voices on social media had no legal standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to prove standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â€
