Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that the Biden-Harris administration exerted repeated pressure on Meta's teams to censor certain content related to COVID-19. In a letter addressed to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg detailed how the administration allegedly urged Meta to suppress various posts, including those that involved humor and satire about the pandemic.
Zuckerberg expressed regret over not being more vocal about the pressure at the time. He acknowledged that Meta made some decisions under this pressure that, in retrospect, might not have been the best choices.
"I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it," Zuckerberg wrote. "I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."
The Meta CEO stressed that despite the pressure, the final decision to take down content lay with Meta.
"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure," he stated.
Zuckerberg also recalled an instance where Meta was cautioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about a potential Russian disinformation operation targeting the Biden family in the lead-up to the 2020 election. This warning led Meta to demote a New York Post story about corruption allegations involving Joe Biden's family. Zuckerberg noted that this decision was made while awaiting verification from fact-checkers, but admitted that in hindsight, the story was not Russian disinformation and should not have been demoted.
The House Judiciary Committee, controlled by the Republican Party, shared details of Zuckerberg's letter on the social media platform X, highlighting Zuckerberg's admissions regarding the pressure from the Biden-Harris administration and Meta's subsequent actions. The post on X read, "Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin 'pressured' Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech."
Zuckerberg concluded his letter by reiterating his commitment to Meta's content standards and resisting any similar pressure in the future, stating, "We should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction, and we're ready to push back if something like this happens again."