Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that his company, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor content, with a particular emphasis on COVID-19. The admission came in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, following an ongoing investigation into the role of online platforms in content moderation.
Fox Business reports The House Judiciary Committee first subpoenaed Meta for documents and information in February 2023, focusing on content moderation and the extent of the executive branch’s involvement in influencing private companies’ decisions on speech.
Zuckerberg’s admission in the letter comes more than a year after Meta provided thousands of documents to the committee, along with making a dozen employees available for transcribed interviews. The Meta CEO emphasized the company’s cooperation with the investigation, and doubled down on stating their efforts to be transparent in their interactions with government agencies.
A White House spokesperson responded to Fox News about the revelations of Zuckerberg’s letter. The administration claims it was acting responsibly. “When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position 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 independent choices about the information they present.”
Zuckerberg specifically mentioned that in 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration and the White House repeatedly pressured Facebook to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire. He noted that Facebook did not always agree with the censorship requests, leading to frustration within the administration. Despite the pressure, Zuckerberg stated that the final decision on content removal rested with Facebook.
“Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions,” Zuckerberg wrote, acknowledging that the pressure from the government was wrong. He also expressed regret that Meta was not more outspoken about the situation at the time. Reflecting on the decisions made during the pandemic, Zuckerberg mentioned that with the benefit of hindsight, Meta would likely have made different choices.
Zuckerberg also addressed the issue of throttling the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election. He revealed that the FBI had warned Facebook about a potential Russian disinformation operation related to the Biden family and Burisma. As a result, Facebook temporarily demoted a New York Post story on corruption allegations involving the Biden family while waiting for fact-checkers to review the information.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again – for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.”
