On Tuesday's broadcast of NewsNation's “The Hill,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said it was “a mistake” for Mehta to censor certain COVID-related posts, but denied that the Biden administration did anything wrong by pressuring him to do so, saying he was only being asked whether the White House did anything wrong “because of the current political environment.”
Host Blake Berman asked, “Attorney General, did the White House get this wrong?”
Ellison responded: “Well, Meta is wrong on a number of counts. Meta needs to rethink how their algorithm works.”
Berman then interjected, “What about the White House?”
Ellison responded, “No, I hear you. And obviously the political climate is asking me that, but if you want to talk about who got people, got things, wrong, Mehta got a lot wrong. It's good that they apologized. There's a lot of other things they got wrong, and we're going to hold them accountable in court and hold them to account for all the things they shouldn't have done, including manipulating algorithms that led kids to do and engage in a lot of things that are extremely dangerous and unhealthy. So was the White House wrong? Mehta was wrong, and I'm glad he at least has the decency to apologize for some of the things he got wrong.”
Berman then read out the White House statement on the matter, noting that it did not include an apology, and asked: “Do you believe that's a correct White House statement?”
Ellison responded: “When you do something wrong, you should apologize. What I've heard from your article and other reporting and the complaint we filed against Meta is that they did things they shouldn't have done. Maybe in the eyes of the Judiciary Committee they did things they shouldn't have done. I and several other attorneys general, on a bipartisan basis, believe they did other things wrong as well… in terms of how they manipulated the algorithm to try to lure more young people to engage in unhealthy behaviors. They might want to apologize for that as well. I hope they do, and I think it will be better if they do.”
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