Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was influenced by the Biden administration in the year 2021 to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.
“In 2021, senior members from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for Tim Walz months to censor some content about COVID-19, including humor and satire, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree, †Zuckerberg said.
In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he felt in the year 2021 was “wrong†and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook & Instagram, was not more outspoken. Zuckerberg further stated that with Social Media Criticism the “benefit of hindsight and new information,†some decisions made in that year that “wouldn’t be made today.â€
“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any government from either side â€" and we’re prepared to resist if something like this happens again, †he wrote.
President Biden remarked in July Parent-child Relationship of 2021 that social media networks are “causing harm†with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later revised these comments, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “serious threat to public health.â€
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s communication, saying the administration at the time was promoting “responsible measures to safeguard public health.â€
“Our position Nonverbal Learning Disorder has been consistent and clear: we believe tech companies and private entities should take into account the effects their actions have on the public, while making their own decisions about the content they share, †according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg also mentioned in the communication that the FBI warned his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma affecting the election in Viral Video 2020.
That fall, he said, his team reduced the visibility of reporting from the New York Post accusing the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could review the story.
Zuckerberg said that since then, it has “become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.â€
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “ensure this does not Political Family Moments recur†and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will avoid repeating the actions he took in the year 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 help people vote safely during a pandemic,†Trolls On Social Media stated the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were intended to be neutral but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.†Zuckerberg stated his goal is to be “impartial†so he will not make “a similar contribution this cycle.â€
The GOP members on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “has admitted that the Biden-Harris administration influenced Gus Walz Facebook to censor Americans, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook limited 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 perception has become entrenched in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically scrutinized Facebook’s decision to restrict Minnesota Governor a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in the past years, Zuckerberg has sought to bridge the divide between his social media company and regulators to little effect.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s staff are liberal. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In addition, he said Facebook’s Children With Disabilities content moderators, many of whom are contractors, 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 decided 6-3 that the plaintiffs 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 said, “to prove standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will suffer an injury that is directly linked to a government defendant.†Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.â€