Zuckerberg Reveals That the White House Forced Meta to Censor Covid-Related Content during the Pandemic

• In a letter addressed to Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he had to take down millions of posts from Facebook and Instagram owing to pressure from the White House.
• He further added that he regrets this decision and in the future, won't give in to any such demands.
• The White House, on the other hand, defended its actions and said that it was only encouraging responsible actions to protect public health and safety during a rough time.

Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg revealed that during peak COVID time, the White House pressured him to remove content related to the pandemic from Facebook and Instagram.

In 2021 alone, Facebook removed approximately 20 million Covid-19-related posts for breaching its regulations.

Zuckerberg sent a letter to Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee, who is currently investigating content moderation on online platforms.

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, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree' - Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg also added that he regrets bowing down to some of the requests and not speaking about it before. Although it was ultimately Meta's decision to take down the content, there was significant pressure from the government which he deemed wrong.

Both Zuckerberg and his team felt that they should not compromise on their content's standards no matter what pressure comes from the authorities. So if something like this happens again in the future, they will push back.

For the upcoming elections, he said he won't be bowing down to any similar request. In fact, he would like to stay neutral - not play any part or even appear to be playing a part.

What Does the White House Have to Say About This?

The White House defended its actions and said it did what seemed the best step at that time. The world was dealing with a deadly virus and encouraging responsible actions to protect public health and safety" was the right thing to do.

It further added that its stance on tech companies and social media has always been consistent - they have too much influence on the people and that's a power that needs to be exercised mindfully.

Plus, there were quite a few posts on Meta's platform that were spreading misinformation and it was in the best interest of the citizens to curb them.

The Hunter Biden Controversy

In his letter, Zuckerberg also talked about the Hunter Biden (Joe Biden's son) controversy. Biden junior left his laptop at a repair shop in Delaware.

Some emails on his laptop suggested that his business abroad had influenced some of the US's foreign policy during Joe Biden's term as a Vice President.

Although the Biden family denied these allegations, the story quickly went viral online. However, Zuckerberg had to suppress it after the FBI warned it might be a Russian disinformation operation and now he regrets it.

Once again, Zuckerberg has promised that their content policies have been revised and there won't be a rerun of this episode. Meanwhile, the Republicans who control the House judiciary committee are rejoicing at this revelation and have called it a big win for free speech".

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