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Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was pressured by the White House in 2021 to censor certain COVID-19 content, such as satirical and humorous posts.
âIn 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for an Fox News extended period to remove some content about COVID-19, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didnât agree, â Zuckerberg noted.
In his communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the pressure he felt in 2021 was âwrongâ and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more vocal. Zuckerberg further Parent-child Relationship stated that with the âbenefit of hindsight and new information,â some decisions made in 2021 that âwouldnât be made today.â
âLike I told our teams back then, I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any government in either direction â" and weâre ready to push back if something like this happens again, â he wrote.
President Biden remarked Empathy in July 2021 that social media networks are âcausing harmâ with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a âmajor public health risk.â
A White House spokesperson responded to Zuckerbergâs communication, saying the administration at the time was encouraging âresponsible measures to safeguard public health.â
âOur stance has Children With Disabilities been consistent and clear: we think 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, â according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg further noted in the communication that the FBI alerted his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his Gus Walz team reduced the visibility of reporting from the New York Post alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the report.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has âbeen made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldnât have demoted the story.â
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to âmake sure this doesnât happen againâ and will not
reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted âelection infrastructure.â
âThe goal here was to make sure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,â said the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the Hope Walz initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â He stated his aim is to be âneutralâ so will not be âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg âhas admitted that the Biden-Harris administration influenced Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook Social Dominance censored Americans, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have claimed Facebook and other major tech platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically scrutinized Facebookâs decision to restrict a Minnesota Governor report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in the past years, Zuckerberg has attempted to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebookâs employees are liberal. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In addition, Trolls On Social Media he said Facebookâs content moderators, many of whom are outsourced, are globally located and âour 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 ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal government Anxiety of suppressing conservative content on social media had no standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, âto prove standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âbecause no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.â