Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg penning a letter on Monday to the House Judiciary Committee admitting that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor COVID-19 content and admitted it was wrong to block the coverage of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” he acknowledged.
In the letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Zuckerberg wrote that “senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, repeatedly pressured” Meta to “censor” content related to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.
The content the Biden administration requested that Meta take down included “humor and satire,” according to the Facebook founder, and he said he regrets complying with certain demands.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” he wrote. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
Zuckerberg assured Jordan that Meta has put policies in place to ensure that similar censorship of stories “doesn’t happen again.”
“We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again."
Also, Zuckerberg said he won't spend another half billion in "Zuckerbucks" to help finance democratic campaigns this cycle.
“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another — or to even appear to be playing a role. So, I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”