One of the most recognizable figures in big tech just admitted that he was “repeatedly pressured” by the Biden administration to “censor” content back in 2021.
On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta — the parent company of the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms — wrote a letter to the House Judiciary Committee to express his regret over not speaking up more about the “government pressure” his company faced to take down certain content that was posted on its platforms regarding COVID-19.
In the letter that he sent to Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg wrote:
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken. Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that 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.”
In addition, Zuckerberg said his company “shouldn’t have demoted” a story the New York Post wrote about the corruption allegations that were levied against President Joe Biden’s family leading up to the 2020 election while he was waiting for Meta’s fact-checking team to review the story.
Since that time, Meta has updated its processes and policies, Zuckerberg wrote, which includes stating that they won’t demote content in the U.S. anymore while they wait for the fact checking to be completed.
The entrepreneur also wrote that he won’t be making political contributions to local jurisdictions to support election infrastructure during this election cycle, which is something he did a lot of back in 2020.
The contributions that he made then were “designed to be non-partisan,” but he was accused of distributing the funds unfairly between areas that were liberal and conservative. Many Republicans even labeled those donations as “Zuckerbucks.”
As he wrote:
“Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other. My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another — or to even appear to be playing a role.”
Republicans have long accused Meta and many of the other major social media platforms of unfairly censoring content from conservative voices.
The communications that members of the Biden administration had with social media companies regarding removing election misinformation and COVID-19 content came to the legal forefront last year.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 last June that the two conservative attorneys general as well as the private parties that challenged these communications didn’t have a legal standing to bring the case.
That being said, the high court justices didn’t rule on the issues revolving around the First Amendment in that case.
A spokesperson for the White House commented on the situation this week, saying in a statement:
“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.”