Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration have pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19-related content during the pandemic, and he vowed to take action if the social media company is hit with such demands again.
In a letter to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg alleged that officials, including some in the White House, had “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to “remove certain content about COVID-19, including humor and satire.”
When the company did not agree, officials “expressed great disappointment,” the letter said.
“I believe the government’s pressure was misguided and I regret that we have not been more open about it,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter dated August 26 and posted on the commission’s Facebook and X accounts.
The letter is the latest effort by Zuckerberg to try to combat misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic during the 2020 presidential election and beyond, particularly after it emerged that some posts were improperly removed.
“I also think we made some decisions that, in retrospect and with the new information, we would not have made today,” he said, without elaborating. “We are prepared to fight back if something like this happens again.”
In response, the White House said in a statement that “in the face of a deadly pandemic, this administration has encouraged responsible actions to protect the health and safety of the public. Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe that technology companies and other private actors must consider the impact of their actions on the American people when making independent decisions about the information they provide.”
Experts have warned that this year’s US general election could be dominated by misinformation on social media due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other tools to generate fake news and content that can mislead voters.
In early 2021, Facebook added what Zuckerberg called “trustworthy information” to posts about COVID-19 vaccines. This followed in April 2020, when the virus caused lockdowns and major changes to daily life around the world, to warn users who were spreading false information about COVID-19.
Conservatives have long criticized Facebook and other big tech companies for harboring liberal biases, accusing them of censorship.
