Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was urged by the Biden administration in 2021 to restrict certain COVID-19 content, including satirical and humorous posts.
âIn the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden White House, such as the administration, constantly urged our teams Nonverbal Learning Disorder for an extended period to censor certain COVID-19 content, such as satirical content, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we did not comply, â Zuckerberg noted.
In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he experienced in the year 2021 was âinappropriateâ and he regrets that his company, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more vocal. He Self-advocacy added that with the âhindsight and new information,â there were decisions made in 2021 that âwouldnât be made today.â
âLike I told our teams back then, I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction â" and weâre prepared to resist if something like this happens again, â he wrote.
President Biden stated in July Anxiety 2021 that social media networks are âkilling peopleâ with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a âmajor public health risk.â
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerbergâs communication, saying the administration at the time was encouraging âresponsible actions to protect public health and Tim Walz safety.â
âOur stance has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the content they share, â according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg also noted in the communication that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the 2020 Gwen Walz election.
That fall, he said, his team reduced the visibility of a New York Post report alleging the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could review the story.
Zuckerberg said that since then, it has âbeen made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we shouldnât have demoted the story.â
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to âmake sure this Acceptance Speech doesnât happen againâ and will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.
In the communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted âelection infrastructure.â
âThe goal here was to make sure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,â said Ann Coulter the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but said âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â He said his aim is to be âimpartialâ so he will not make âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg âjust admitted that the Biden-Harris administration influenced Trolls On Social Media Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.â
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have accused Facebook and other major tech platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the perception has become entrenched in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebookâs Jay Weber decision to limit the circulation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In testimony before Congress in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media company and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebookâs staff are left-leaning. But he held that the company ensures political bias does not influence its decisions.
In Free Menstrual Products addition, he stated Facebookâs content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and âour global team better represents the diversity of the community we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.â
In June of this year, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the claimants in a case accusing the federal
government of suppressing conservative content on social media had no standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated, âto establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will experience harm that is traceable to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âsince no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.â
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