Zuckerberg explained that the Biden administration pressured his team for months in 2021 to censor “certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our team when we didn’t agree.”
Meta Platforms CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted on Monday that the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” his team for months in 2021 to censor content related to COVID-19, including content from ordinary Americans.
Zuckerberg responded to questions from the House Judiciary Committee, explaining the moderation of online content on social media platforms, including addressing reports that the Biden administration tried to censor multiple social media companies.
“There’s a lot of talk right now, about how the U.S. government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position,” Zuckerberg said in a letter to the committee. “Our platforms are for everyone — we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way.”
Zuckerberg explained that the Biden administration pressured his team for months in 2021 to censor “certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our team when we didn’t agree.”
The CEO admitted that the company made the ultimate decision on what to remove and when, stating that he owns up to the censorship, including on matters related to the COVID-19 global health emergency and pandemic.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg continued. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
The Facebook founder also admitted that Facebook demoted the Hunter Biden laptop story, because it was warned by the FBI about a potential Russian disinformation operation regarding Burisma and the Biden family leading into the 2020 election.
“It’s been since made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg said he has since changed the company’s policies to not immediately demote a U.S. story while waiting for fact-checkers to confirm the authenticity of the report.
The House Judiciary committee lauded the admission in a post to X, claiming that it was a “big win for free speech.”
