House Republicans are celebrating a victory after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter Monday that Biden administration officials have “repeatedly pressured” social media companies to remove content related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that Zuckerberg's letter lends credibility to allegations of censorship they have long leveled against social media companies.
“The @HouseGOP has known for a long time that the Harris-Biden Administration has been pressuring Facebook to censor Americans,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said in a post on social platform X on Tuesday.
“Mark Zuckerberg's letter to @JudiciaryGOP leaves no doubt that this was an intentional violation of First Amendment rights,” Emmer added. “This abuse of power must end now.”
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Zuckerberg said he regrets not being more vocal about “government pressure” for Meta to remove COVID-19-related content, including humor and satire.
“As I told my team at the time, I feel strongly that our content standards should not be compromised due to pressure from the Administration,” he wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“If it happens again, we are ready to fight back,” Met's CEO added.
Zuckerberg did not provide details about the posts Meta was forced to remove or their political leanings, but several Republican lawmakers understood this to refer to conservative content.
“Mark Zuckerberg has finally admitted what everyone knew: Facebook is throttling conservative content on its platform,” Rep. Diana Hershberger (R-Tenn.) wrote on X. “This is a major victory for free speech, and conservatives must continue to pressurize against government censorship of the media.”
“It's time to hold Big Tech accountable for their blatant censorship of conservatives,” Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) also said on X.
The White House defended its actions during the pandemic, noting that the Biden administration “encouraged responsible behavior to protect public health and safety.”
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should consider the impact of their actions on the American people and make their own choices about the information they provide,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
House Republicans also argued that Zuckerberg's letter shows that Mehta helped suppress a New York Post story about corruption allegations against President Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg said in his Monday letter that the FBI had warned Mehta in 2020, during the Trump administration, about possible Russian disinformation operations involving Biden's family and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company with ties to the president's son, Hunter Biden.
When the New York Post broke a story featuring emails from Hunter Biden's laptop, Mehta downgraded the story while waiting for verification by fact-checkers.
“It has since become clear that this report was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should never have downgraded this story,” Zuckerberg wrote.
He also noted that Meta has since changed its policies and processes, such as no longer demoting content while it waits for fact-checkers.
“Social media companies like Meta have been co-opted by the Biden-Harris Administration to censor conservative voices and cover up the corruption of the Biden crime family,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) wrote on X.
“They should never suppress our constitutional rights! They must be held accountable,” he added.
However, Zuckerberg's letter makes no mention of any discussions with the Biden administration regarding Hunter Biden's laptop.
The contents purportedly contained on Hunter Biden's laptop hard drive that were shared with multiple media outlets have not been verified by him or his lawyers, although portions of them have later been verified by other sources and certified as authentic by several media outlets.
Republicans have spent years sifting through the laptop looking for material to scrutinize Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings, including with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which led to former President Trump's first impeachment.
The Republican investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings culminated in the release of an impeachment report earlier this month, which alleged that President Biden engaged in impeachable conduct.
The report argued, based on circumstantial evidence, that it was “inconceivable” that the then-vice president was unaware that his family was using his name to gain influence without any direct ties to foreign funding.
