Biden administration 'repeatedly pressured' Meta to censor COVID-19 content, claims Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, who in a letter to US House Judiciary Committee expressed regret over not being more vocal about this issue at the time, and also said that some decisions made under this pressure would not be repeated today.
In a bombshell allegation Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that the social media platform was ¡°pressured¡± by the US government to censor content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic. Zuckerberg, who in a letter to US House Judiciary Committee expressed regret over not being more vocal about this issue at the time, and also said that some decisions made under this pressure would not be repeated today.
CREDIT: AP
'Biden administration repeatedly pressured us'
"In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. 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 said in the letter.
CREDIT: REUTERS
Mark Zuckerberg's letter
The official X account of the House Committee on the Judiciary of the Republicans posted Zuckerberg's letter on the social media platform saying:
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.
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
¡ª House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
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. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
Zuckerberg on Hunter Biden laptop controversy
In the letter, Zuckerberg further said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned Meta about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family, following which the story of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy was demoted.
Also read: Hunter Biden, Son of US President, Enters Guilty Plea for Tax Crimes
CREDIT: AP
'Wrong to demote Hunter Biden story'
In the letter, Zuckerberg, the fourth richest man in the world, admitted that it was not Russian disinformation and it was wrong to demote the story.
When we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," the letter said.
For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
Read More
