Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a communication to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was urged by the Biden administration in 2021 to restrict content related to COVID-19, including humor and satire.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, such as the administration, constantly urged our teams for months to remove Empathy certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree, †Zuckerberg noted.
In his communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that the pressure he experienced in the year 2021 was “wrong†and he regrets that his company, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more vocal. He further stated that with Minnesota Governor the “hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in 2021 that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any Administration from either side â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this occurs in the future, †he wrote.
President Biden remarked in July Special Education 2021 that social media networks are “killing people†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 “major public health risk.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s letter, saying the administration at the time was encouraging “responsible actions to protect public health and
safety.â€
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the public, while making independent choices about the information they present, †according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI alerted his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the election in Free Menstrual Products 2020.
That fall, Zuckerberg said, his team temporarily demoted a New York Post report alleging the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could review the report.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has “been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have reduced its visibility.â€
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “make sure this doesn’t Support For People With Disabilities happen again†and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will not repeat actions he took in 2020 when he assisted “electoral infrastructure.â€
“The idea here was to make sure local election authorities across the country had the resources they needed to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,†said the Meta ADHD CEO.
Zuckerberg said the initiatives were intended to be neutral but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg said his goal is to be “neutral†so will not be “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “just admitted that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor Self-advocacy Americans, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â€
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have accused Facebook and other large technology platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s decision to Public Display Of Affection limit the circulation of a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to close the gap between his social media company and policymakers to limited success.
In a 2020 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebook’s staff are liberal. But he maintained that the company ensures political bias does not influence its decisions.
In addition, Social Media Criticism he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are outsourced, are based worldwide and “our 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 ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal government Tim Walz of suppressing conservative content on social media had no legal standing.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.†Trolls On Social Media