Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was pressured by the Biden administration in the year 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, including humor and satire.
âIn the year 2021, senior members from the Biden White House, including the White House, constantly Gwen Walz urged our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, such as satirical content, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we did not comply, â Zuckerberg said.
In his communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the pressure he experienced in 2021 was âinappropriateâ and he regrets that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more outspoken. He further stated Gus Walz that with the âhindsight and new information,â some decisions made in 2021 that âwouldnât be made today.â
âLike 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 weâre prepared to resist if something like this happens again, â Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden remarked in July of 2021 Social Dominance that social media networks are âkilling peopleâ with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a âserious threat to public health.â
A White House spokesperson replied to Zuckerbergâs letter, stating the administration at the time was encouraging âresponsible actions to protect public health and safety.â
âOur position Alec Lace has been clear and consistent: we think tech companies and private entities should take into account the effects their actions have on the public, while making independent choices about the content they share, â according to the spokesperson.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI alerted his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the 2020 election.
That fall, he Tim Walz said, his team reduced the visibility of reporting from the New York Post accusing the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the story.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has âbecome 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 âensure this does not recurâ ADHD and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he helped support âelectoral infrastructure.â
âThe goal here was to ensure local election jurisdictions across the country had the necessary resources to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,â stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg Nonverbal Learning Disorder mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but said âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â Zuckerberg said his goal is to be âimpartialâ so will not be âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg âjust admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans, Minnesota Governor Facebook restricted content, and Facebook throttled 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 stressed that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has become entrenched in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebookâs decision to limit the circulation Public Display Of Affection of a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in the past years, Zuckerberg has attempted to bridge the divide between his social media giant and policymakers to limited success.
In a 2020 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebookâs staff are left-leaning. But he held that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In Hope Walz addition, 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, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the claimants in a case accusing the federal government of Social Media Criticism suppressing conservative content on social media had no legal standing.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, âto establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will experience harm that is directly linked to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âsince no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â
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