WASHINGTON —
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior officials in President Joe Biden’s administration pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19-related content during the pandemic, and he vowed the social media company would push back if faced with such demands again.
In a letter to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said officials, including some in the White House, “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to remove “certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.”
Officials “expressed significant frustration” when the company did not agree, he said in the letter.
“I believe the administration’s pressure was misguided and I regret that we were not more forthright about it,” Zuckerberg wrote in the letter dated August 26 and posted on the commission’s Facebook and X accounts.
The letter is the latest pushback from Zuckerberg against efforts to combat misinformation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic during and after the 2020 presidential election, particularly after reports surfaced that some posts were wrongly removed or restricted.
“I also think we made some decisions that, in retrospect and with new information, we wouldn’t make today,” he said, without elaborating. “We are prepared to stand firm if something like this happens again.”
In response, the White House said in a statement that “when confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe that technology companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent decisions about the information they report.”
Experts have warned that this year’s US general election could be flooded with misinformation on social media due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other tools to produce fake news and content that could mislead voters.
In early 2021, Facebook added what Zuckerberg called “credible information” labels to posts about COVID-19 vaccines. That was after it took steps in April 2020 — when the virus had caused lockdowns and radical changes to daily life around the world — to warn users who shared misinformation about COVID-19.
Conservatives have long criticized Facebook and other big tech companies for favoring liberal priorities and accusing them of censorship.
