Mark Zuckerberg’s bombshell letter on COVID censorship shows the White House understands the 'power and impact of platforms like Facebook', Newstalk Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly has said.
It comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said US President Joe Biden’s officials "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to censor accounts promoting COVID-19 misinformation.
In a letter addressed to US House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan on Monday, Mr Zuckerberg said he regrets working with the administration to censor content on his 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 humour and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree," Mr Zuckerberg said in the letter.
"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure."
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.
2. Facebook censored Americans.
3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
In his letter, he said the FBI warned Meta about a potential Russian disinformation operation targeting the Biden family ahead of the 2020 election.
As a result, Meta demoted posts alleging corruption involving Joe Biden's family while they were being analysed by fact-checkers.
Mr Zuckerberg claimed, however, the reporting was not Russian disinformation and should not have been demoted.
Newstalk Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly told The Pat Kenny Show it is unusual for Mr Zuckerberg to say anything.
"He has come out - after saying he wasn't going to stick his head above the parapet during the presidential election - he has come out and said that he did face pressure and lobbying from Biden's White House to take down some content in relation to COVID-19," she said.
"The letter did clarify that this was satire or humour content relating to the pandemic which could, in some people's eyes, fall under the remit of misinformation or just unhelpful information.
"The Republicans are saying that this is a victory for free speech, the fact that he didn't take it down, but it's just interesting to see that The White House certainly understands the power and impact of platforms like Facebook and the importance of clear and accurate information - particularly when it comes to people's health."
Mr Zuckerberg added that Meta has since changed its policies and it no longer temporarily demotes content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
