On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed in a letter that the Biden-Harris administration exerted pressure on his company, Facebook, to enforce content restrictions on Americans, particularly concerning COVID-19 information.
Zuckerberg’s revelation came in correspondence with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, over a year after he had submitted thousands of documents for the committee’s probe into online content moderation practices.
In addition to the documents, Zuckerberg highlighted that Meta had made a dozen employees available for detailed interviews, emphasizing the company’s commitment to cooperating with the investigation.
Zuckerberg addressed the ongoing debate about government influence on platforms like Meta, clarifying, “Our platforms are designed for everyone—promoting speech and facilitating connections in a safe and secure environment. We frequently engage with governments globally and address various concerns related to public discourse and safety.”
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In his communication to Jordan, Zuckerberg recounted that in 2021, high-ranking officials from both the Biden administration and the White House exerted substantial pressure on Facebook for months, urging the platform to censor various COVID-19-related content, including comedic and satirical posts.
Zuckerberg noted that Facebook’s reluctance to comply led to significant frustration from the Biden administration.
“Ultimately, the choice to remove content was ours, and we stand by the decisions we made, including those related to COVID-19 enforcement,” Zuckerberg stated. “I believe the government’s demands were inappropriate, and I regret that we did not more vocally oppose them.”
Zuckerberg acknowledged, “In retrospect, there are decisions we made that we might handle differently today with the knowledge we have now.” He emphasized to his team that compromising content standards due to pressure from any administration was unacceptable and affirmed readiness to resist such pressure in the future.
A White House spokesperson told TV5s, “In the face of a serious pandemic, this administration advocated for responsible measures to safeguard public health. Our stance remains that tech companies and other private entities should consider the impact of their actions on the public, while maintaining their autonomy in managing information.”
Facebook chose not to comment beyond the contents of the letter.
The committee initially subpoenaed Meta on February 15, 2023, seeking documents and information regarding content moderation and Meta’s interactions with the executive branch concerning speech regulation.
The inquiry aimed to determine if, and to what extent, the executive branch exerted pressure on private companies to suppress specific types of speech, potentially infringing on First Amendment rights.
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In his letter on Monday, Zuckerberg addressed the controversy surrounding the Hunter Biden laptop story. He recounted that the FBI had alerted Facebook to a “potential Russian disinformation operation” connected to the Biden family and Burisma before the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg explained that the New York Post’s article on the corruption allegations against the Bidens was reviewed by fact-checkers and temporarily suppressed pending verification.
“Looking back, it’s clear that the reporting was not disinformation from Russia, and we should not have restricted the story,” Zuckerberg admitted. “We’ve since revised our policies to prevent such issues in the future. For example, we no longer place content on hold while waiting for fact-checkers in the U.S.”
