Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was influenc...
Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was influenced by the Biden administration in the year 2021 to limit content related to COVID-19, such as satirical and humorous posts.
âIn 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, such as the administration,

repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor some content about COVID-19, such as humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we did not comply, â Zuckerberg said.
In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the influence he felt in 2021 was âwrongâ and he regrets that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not Cyberbullying more vocal. Zuckerberg further stated that with the âhindsight and new information,â some decisions made in 2021 that âwouldnât be made today.â
âAs I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any government in either direction â" and weâre prepared to resist if something like this happens again, â Zuckerberg Online Bullying wrote.
President Biden remarked in July of 2021 that social media platforms are âcausing harmâ with misinformation about the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation spread on social media was a âmajor public health risk.â
A spokesperson from the White House replied to Zuckerbergâs letter, stating the administration at the time was encouraging âresponsible ADHD measures to safeguard public health.â
âOur position has been clear and consistent: we think tech companies and private entities should take into account 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 further mentioned in the letter that the FBI alerted his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Hope Walz Biden and Burisma affecting the election in 2020.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team reduced the visibility of reporting from the New York Post alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could assess the story.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has âbecome clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldnât have demoted the story.â
Meta has since changed its policies and Alec Lace processes to âensure this does not recurâ and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted âelection infrastructure.â
âThe idea here was to ensure local election authorities across the country had the necessary resources to help people vote safely Kamala Harris during a pandemic,â stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but said âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â He said his goal is to be âimpartialâ so he will not make âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and said Zuckerberg âhas admitted that Self-advocacy the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â
The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other large technology platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the narrative has gained a firm foothold in conservative communities. Republican Support For People With Disabilities lawmakers have specifically scrutinized Facebookâs decision to limit the circulation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has attempted to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to limited success.
In a 2020 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebookâs employees are left-leaning. But he held that the company ensures political bias does Nonverbal Learning Disorder not influence its decisions.
In addition, he said Facebookâs content moderators, many of whom are outsourced, are globally located 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, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs in a case accusing Empathy the federal government of censoring conservative voices on social media had no standing.
Writing for the majority, 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 directly linked to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âsince no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary Public Display Of Affection injunction.â