CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg appears on a monitor as he testifies remotely during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing 'Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?', on Capitol Hill, October 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey; CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google LLC, Sundar Pichai; and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg all testified virtually at the hearing. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act guarantees that tech companies can not be sued for content on their platforms, but the Justice Department has suggested limiting this legislation. Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg told Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey that senior Biden administration officials pressed his company to censor certain COVID-19 content during the pandemic, as shared by Reuters.
Additionally, the Meta chief specifically said in an August 26 letter to the US House Judiciary Committee that he felt disappointed about the pressure and also acknowledged that some of its calls on removing content at that time were wrong.
Mark Zuckerberg on Biden Admin's COVID-19 Censorship Pressure
Zuckerberg's letter detailed how, in 2021, Biden administration officials, including those from the White House, repeatedly urged Meta to remove specific types of COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.
CNN also reported that the pressure reportedly continued for several months, with frustration expressed by the administration when Meta did not comply with all of the requests. "I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret we were not more outspoken about it," Zuckerberg wrote.
He also noted that some of the choices Meta made regarding content removal would be handled differently if the company had the benefit of hindsight.
The letter, which was posted on the Judiciary Committee's Facebook page, was described by the committee as a "big win for free speech," with the committee further highlighting Zuckerberg's admission that Facebook had censored American users.
Along with disclosing the censorship issue, Zuckerberg also vowed that he wouldn't help support electoral infrastructure in the upcoming presidential election. It represents a departure from the 2020 election, for which Zuckerberg's 'Chan Zuckerberg Initiative' had donated $400 million. According to CBS, that same funding was critiqued and challenged in court by several groups, which argued it was partisan.
Neither the White House nor Meta responded to requests for comment as of yet.
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