CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in a letter on Monday that the Biden-Harris administration put pressure on Facebook to restrict content from Americans, especially with reference to COVID-19.
More than a year after giving the House Judiciary Committee thousands of papers to review as part of its inquiry into online platform content moderation, Zuckerberg made the revelation in a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
The CEO of Meta emphasized that the company has cooperated with the investigation by providing papers and a dozen personnel who are ready for transcribed interviews.
Read Also : What are the details of President Biden's Supreme Court reform plans?
"There’s a lot of talk right now around how the U.S. government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position," Zuckerberg wrote in a post. "Everyone can use our platforms; we aim to encourage free speech and facilitate safe and secure connections between individuals. As part of this, governments from all across the world and other parties with diverse concerns about public safety and discourse frequently contact us."
Jordan was informed by him that in 2021, the White House and Biden administration's "senior officials" "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire."
According to Zuckerberg, the Biden administration was very irate when Facebook disagreed with the censorship.
"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," Zuckerberg wrote in a post. "I regret that we were not more vocal about the government's pressure because I think it was wrong.
I also believe that we made some decisions that we wouldn't make now, given the advantage of hindsight and fresh knowledge," he continued. "Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens."
The White House was contacted by FOX Business to provide a response to the accusations. Beyond the letter's content, Facebook refuses to comment.
On February 15, 2023, the committee first subpoenaed Meta for records and information about content moderation and Meta's interactions with the executive branch to restrict speech.
At the time, the committee was looking into whether and to what degree the executive branch may have violated the First Amendment by pressuring or collaborating with private firms to suppress or limit particular types of expression at the behest of the state.
Zuckerberg also mentioned limiting the story regarding Hunter Biden's laptop in the letter he sent Facebook Monday.
Prior to the 2020 election, he claimed that the FBI had alerted his company to "a potential Russian disinformation operation" involving the Biden family and Burisma.
According to Zuckerberg, an article published by the New York Post in the fall contained charges of wrongdoing involving Biden's family. As a result, the story was briefly demoted while fact-checkers reviewed it.
"It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story," Zuckerberg stated. "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."
Anonymous 
CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in a letter on Monday that the Biden-Harris administration put pressure on Facebook to restrict content from Americans, especially with reference to COVID-19.
More than a year after giving the House Judiciary Committee thousands of papers to review as part of its inquiry into online platform content moderation, Zuckerberg made the revelation in a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
The CEO of Meta emphasized that the company has cooperated with the investigation by providing papers and a dozen personnel who are ready for transcribed interviews.
Read Also : What are the details of President Biden's Supreme Court reform plans?
"There’s a lot of talk right now around how the U.S. government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position," Zuckerberg wrote in a post. "Everyone can use our platforms; we aim to encourage free speech and facilitate safe and secure connections between individuals. As part of this, governments from all across the world and other parties with diverse concerns about public safety and discourse frequently contact us."
Jordan was informed by him that in 2021, the White House and Biden administration's "senior officials" "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire."
According to Zuckerberg, the Biden administration was very irate when Facebook disagreed with the censorship.
"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," Zuckerberg wrote in a post. "I regret that we were not more vocal about the government's pressure because I think it was wrong.
I also believe that we made some decisions that we wouldn't make now, given the advantage of hindsight and fresh knowledge," he continued. "Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens."
The White House was contacted by FOX Business to provide a response to the accusations. Beyond the letter's content, Facebook refuses to comment.
On February 15, 2023, the committee first subpoenaed Meta for records and information about content moderation and Meta's interactions with the executive branch to restrict speech.
At the time, the committee was looking into whether and to what degree the executive branch may have violated the First Amendment by pressuring or collaborating with private firms to suppress or limit particular types of expression at the behest of the state.
Zuckerberg also mentioned limiting the story regarding Hunter Biden's laptop in the letter he sent Facebook Monday.
Prior to the 2020 election, he claimed that the FBI had alerted his company to "a potential Russian disinformation operation" involving the Biden family and Burisma.
According to Zuckerberg, an article published by the New York Post in the fall contained charges of wrongdoing involving Biden's family. As a result, the story was briefly demoted while fact-checkers reviewed it.
"It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story," Zuckerberg stated. "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."