Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), has revealed that the Biden administration exerted pressure on the social media giant to censor certain Covid-19 related content during the pandemic... and more.

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Dom Lucre, a major political influencer on X shared a full video of Zuck’s confession.

Key revelations from Zuckerberg's letter include:

  • The Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to censor specific Covid-19 content
  • Facebook complied with requests to censor Americans' posts.
  • The platform throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story
  • Zuckerberg expresses regret over these decisions

Let's dive into the details.

Zuckerberg's “confession,” made in a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, comes as a surprise to many who've long suspected government involvement in social media content moderation. 

In his letter, the Meta boss stated that "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."

Some of the key stories buried include the ones claiming Covid-19 was man-made and content questioning vaccine safety.

The Wall Street Journal also obtained internal emails that shed light on the company's decision-making process. In one particularly telling exchange, Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, asked, "Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man-made?"

The censorship didn't stop at COVID-19 content. Zuckerberg also admitted that Facebook "temporarily demoted" the Hunter Biden laptop story after a warning from the FBI about potential Russian disinformation.

Zuckerberg expressed regret over the company's actions, saying, "I think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."

The Meta CEO is also taking a stand for the future, vowing to push back against similar pressures if they arise again. "Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction," Zuckerberg declared.

After the confession went out, the White House fired back by defending their actions during the pandemic, mentioning that they encouraged "responsible actions to protect public health and safety."

The White House statement continued, "Our position has been clear and consistent. We believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present."

The House Judiciary Committee, currently under Republican control, was quick to celebrate Zuckerberg's admissions, calling it a "big win for free speech" in a post on their Facebook page. A Facebook user, commenting on the post, mentioned that “all conspiracy theorists would like an apology. Truly, it was so obvious in our faces that it’s not even a conspiracy theory.”

Zuckerberg also announced that he would no longer be donating money to widen election access for voters through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. This philanthropic effort had previously donated a cool $400 million to help local election offices prepare for voters in the 2020 presidential election.

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