Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to the House Judiciary Committee saying he regrets not being more vocal about “government pressure” from the Biden administration to “censor” content on the company's platform.
“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 the letter.
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Zuckerberg alleges government pressure in letter to Judiciary Committee
In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Zuckerberg acknowledged that there is “much discussion currently taking place” about how the U.S. government interacts with media companies such as Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.
The letter, sent Monday, is the latest in the committee's investigation into how tech companies work with the federal government and make content moderation decisions.
Zuckerberg said Mehta would produce “thousands of documents” for the committee's investigation and make employees available for interviews. To further aid the investigation, the tech mogul said he had written to share “what he has learned from this process.”
of The letter was shared The House Judiciary Committee Republicans' Facebook page called it a “huge victory for free speech.”
“Mark Zuckerberg admitted to three things: 1. The Biden-Harris Administration 'pressured' Facebook to censor Americans; 2. Facebook censored Americans; and 3. Facebook suppressed stories about Hunter Biden's laptop,” the committee wrote.
Biden administration reportedly asked to censor COVID-19 satire
Zuckerberg alleged that Biden administration officials pressured Meta in 2021 to censor certain content related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the course of 2021, Biden Administration officials, including from the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months to censor specific COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed significant frustration with our team when we did not comply,” he wrote.
Zuckerberg said the government pressure was “wrong” and that the company should not have been “more forthright” about the issue at the time, adding that Meta made decisions it would not have made today with “hindsight and new information.”
“If this happens again, we are ready to fight back,” he added later in the letter.
Meta downgrades Biden family story over Russian disinformation fears
Zuckerberg said the FBI had warned Mehta about a “potential Russian disinformation operation” ahead of the 2020 presidential election, which pits Biden against former President Trump.
In the letter, he noted the potential operation concerned ties between the Biden family and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company with ties to the president's son, Hunter Biden.
The company decided to demote a New York Post story about corruption allegations against Biden, who was then the Democratic presidential nominee.
“We sent the story to our fact-checkers for review and temporarily downgraded it while we waited for their response,” Zuckerberg said. “It has since become clear that the report was not Russian disinformation. In retrospect, we should not have downgraded the story.”
Mehta has updated its policies and procedures, including temporarily not demoting posts in the US while it waits for fact-checkers, he added.
CEO acknowledges contribution to 'last presidential election cycle'
In the final paragraph of the two-page letter, Zuckerberg said he wanted to mention contributions “made to support election infrastructure during the last presidential election.”
According to Meta's founders, the donations were intended to be “non-partisan,” but they have been accused of being distributed unfairly between left- and right-leaning areas that Republicans refer to as “Zuckerbucks.”
Zuckerberg said the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is intended to reach out across urban, rural and suburban communities.
“I understand that some people believe this effort has benefited one side,” he said, despite analysis showing otherwise.
“My goal is to remain neutral and not play or appear to play a role one way or another,” he concluded. “So I don't intend to make the same contributions this term.”
Trump denies 2020 election was fraudulent
Trump responded to Zuckerberg's letter in a post on his Truth Social platform, repeating one of his biggest false claims: that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in Biden's favor.
“It's what everyone has been waiting for – the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged!” He posted.
The former president was responding to a post by lawyer Alina Habba targeting the Biden administration and Vice President Harris, Trump's new Democratic rival in the election.
“This is exactly what the current administration (including Kamala) has done to our country,” Habba wrote. “Censorship happens in communist countries, not in this republic.”
The White House defended its actions in a statement to The Hill.
“In the face of a deadly pandemic, this administration has encouraged responsible behavior to protect public health and safety,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “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 autonomous choices about the information they provide.”
