Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has alleged in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" Meta to censor posts related to COVID-19.
Zuckerberg admitted that, with the benefit of hindsight, some of the platform's decisions regarding COVID-19 content were misguided and that he regrets not being more vocal about the issue. He stated, "In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, exerted significant pressure on our teams to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire. Despite this pressure, it was ultimately our decision whether or not to remove content, and we take responsibility for those decisions."
Zuckerberg further expressed regret for not being more assertive in resisting this pressure, emphasizing that such compromises on content standards should not be made under any governmental influence. He added, "We should not allow any administration to dictate our content standards, and we are prepared to push back if faced with similar pressure in the future."
The House Judiciary Committee, represented by Republicans, highlighted Zuckerberg's letter on social media platform X, stating, "Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. The Biden-Harris Administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech."
Zuckerberg also recounted another incident involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had warned Meta about a potential Russian disinformation campaign concerning the Biden family and Burisma ahead of the 2020 election. In response, Meta temporarily demoted a New York Post story about corruption allegations involving Joe Biden's family. Zuckerberg now contends that the story was not disinformation and that the decision to demote it was a mistake.
(With inputs from ANI)
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