Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently disclosed in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan that Facebook faced pressure from the Biden-Harris administration to censor certain COVID-19 content. This revelation comes more than a year after Meta provided the committee with numerous documents as part of an investigation into online content moderation.
Zuckerberg emphasized Meta's cooperation with the investigation, stating that the company had also made a dozen employees available for transcribed interviews. He underscored Meta's commitment to promoting speech and facilitating safe connections on its platforms, while acknowledging the challenges posed by government interactions.
In his letter, Zuckerberg revealed that senior officials from the Biden administration and the White House had persistently urged Facebook to censor specific COVID-19 content, including humor and satire. Despite facing pressure, Facebook maintained its stance against censorship, leading to frustration from the administration.
Zuckerberg expressed regret over the government's pressure and acknowledged that some decisions made in response could have been handled differently. He affirmed the importance of upholding content standards and resisting undue influence from any administration.
Regarding the handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story, Zuckerberg mentioned that the FBI had alerted Facebook about a potential Russian disinformation campaign related to the Biden family and Burisma before the 2020 election. Facebook temporarily demoted the story based on fact-checking procedures, which was later found to be unnecessary as the reporting was not linked to Russian disinformation.
As a result of this incident, Zuckerberg stated that Facebook has revised its policies and processes to prevent similar occurrences in the future, such as eliminating the practice of temporarily demoting content while awaiting fact-checking outcomes.
The House Judiciary Committee had initially subpoenaed Meta for information on content moderation practices and interactions with the executive branch to suppress speech. The investigation aimed to determine if private companies were coerced or collaborated with the government to restrict certain forms of expression, potentially infringing on First Amendment rights.
