Meta CEO reveals Biden administration pressured for COVID-19 censorship
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that, according to a Reuters report, President Joe Biden's administration officials pressured his company to censor content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic. "I regret that we were not more outspoken about it," added Zuckerberg.
In a letter dated August 26 addressed to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg expressed regret that he hadn't previously informed the public about the pressure exerted on Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, regarding content regulation.
"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," Zuckerberg wrote in the letter, which the House Judiciary Committee published on its Facebook page.
"I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken," wrote the Meta Platforms CEO, adding, "I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."
The letter was addressed to committee chairman Jim Jordan from the Republican Party. In its Facebook post, the committee called the letter a "big win for free speech" and stated that Zuckerberg admitted that "Facebook censored Americans."
In the letter, Zuckerberg also stated that he will not make any contributions to support any candidate in this year's presidential elections in order "not to play any role" in the November voting.
