Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that senior officials in the administration of the United States (U.S.) President Joe Biden pressured Facebook to “censor” some content about COVID-19 during the pandemic and promised that the social media giant would resist if faced with such demands again.
In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said officials, including from the White House, had for months “relentlessly pressured” Facebook to remove “certain content about COVID-19, including humor and satire.”
Officials “showed a lot of frustration” when the company disagreed, Zuckerberg said in the letter.
“I believe that the government’s pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more open about it,” he said in a letter dated August 26th and published on the committee’s Facebook page and on his X account.
The letter is his latest rejection of authorities’ efforts to prevent misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic during and after the 2020 presidential election, particularly after allegations that some posts were deleted or wrongly restricted.
“Also, I think we made some decisions that, looking at it from this perspective, we would not accept today,” Zuckerberg said, without elaborating. “We are ready to resist if something like this happens again,” he added.
In response, the White House said in a statement that “when faced with a deadly pandemic, this administration has encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe that technology companies and other private actors should take consider the effects their actions have on the American people while making independent decisions about the information they release.”
Experts warn that this year’s U.S. election could be flooded with misinformation on social media, with the increasing use of artificial intelligence and other tools to produce fake news and content that could mislead voters.
In early 2021, Facebook added what Zuckerberg called “credible information” stickers to posts about COVID-19 vaccines. This happened after the virus led to a global shutdown and radical changes in daily life in April 2020 – to warn users who were sharing misinformation about COVID-19.
Conservatives have long mocked Facebook and other big tech companies for favoring liberal priorities and accused them of censorship.
Zuckerberg tried to change the company’s perception among the right, bringing on podcaster Joe Rogan’s 2022 show and praising Republican nominee Donald Trump’s response to the assassination attempt as “great.” On Monday, he sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Jordan, is a longtime Trump ally.
Zuckerberg also said he would no longer donate money to expand voter access through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the company that handles philanthropic work for him and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
The couple previously donated $400 million to help local election offices prepare for voters in the 2020 presidential election, providing protective equipment to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at polling places and equipment to process mail-in ballots.
“I know some people believe that this work has benefited one side over the other” despite the analysis showing otherwise, he said. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another – or even look like I’m playing a role. So I don’t plan to make a similar contribution this cycle,” Zuckerberg said, RSE writes.
