The CEO of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, says the Biden-Harris Administration pressured his social media company to censor Covid content during the early days of the pandemic in 2021, after Biden became president.
Multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Sunday, which some people are characterizing as an apology.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken,” he wrote to Jordan. “Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.
“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 humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” Zuckerberg said in the letter. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down.”
He also said that his parent company Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, had suppressed a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop — a story that broke right before the election and which the Democrats and their media partners said was disinformation. Zuckerberg wrote that the company has since changed its policies to avoid any similar move. He said his social media networks would not “demote” potentially false posts or stories while awaiting fact-checking, which is done by its liberal media partners.
The House Judiciary Committee wrote on X: “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.”
But, as revealed on the Dan Fagan Show on KVNT on Wednesday, a Must Read Alaska columnist had an experience recently that contradicts the reforms Zuckerberg is now claiming to have enacted.
Linda Boyle, who writes about health issues for Must Read Alaska, had posted one of Fagan’s podcasts to her Facebook account, only to have it removed by Facebook.
The warning note she received from Facebook said, ” “We do not allow content that is designed to deceive, mislead, or overwhelm users in order to artificially increase viewership. This content detracts from people’s ability to engage authentically on our platforms and can threaten the security, stability and usability of our services. We also seek to prevent abusive tactics, such as spreading deceptive links to draw unsuspecting users in through misleading functionality or code, or impersonating a trusted domain. “
Here is the link to Fagan’s podcast that Boyle tried to share on Facebook:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2325825/15625009
Zuckerberg’s letter, which was posted on Facebook and X/Twitter on Sunday, said, “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today. We’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Alaska Democrats also tried to get Must Read Alaska banned in 2021 on Facebook.
That year, Alaska Rep. Zack Fields wrote to Zuckerberg, demanding that he take down information that Fields said was misinformation about Covid.
Fields, the former director of communication for the Alaska Democratic Party, said at the time that Facebook was the “primary vector of misinformation on COVID-19, and it’s killing Alaskans.” He linked stories from Must Read Alaska and the Alaska Watchman, with a strong implication that they should be censored from the platform.
Lawmakers demanding that news organizations be censored are in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
According to some users of Facebook, the shadow banning and taking down of content continues unabated at Facebook.
As for the Biden-Harris White House, it waved off the criticism, saying, “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 tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present,” it said.
Mark made billions of fake news and manipulating people. What an honorable man!
Zack Fields is just a little diddler, trying to be important. His Indian leg wrestling companion, the wack job senator from Eagle River, may not be going back to Juneau. What’s the little boy to do?
I am quite sure the Democratic Party of fools will welcome him back with open arms for being so effective in violating the constitutional rights of everyone which we all now know was a Fauci sham bought and paid for during the Obama Regime.
Anchorage ASSembly has a task for him as well while they have the power of doing as they please to transform Anchorage into Lost Anchorage.
“Misinformation” means facts and opinions that Democrats do not want you to hear/read.
Labeling and removing things they deem as “misinformation” is totalitarianism pure and simple, which is what the Democrat party has become.
The real misinformation was “it’s safe and effective”, “two weeks to flatten the curve”, “do it for your community to stop the spread”, “stay 6’ apart and wear a mask” and so many more. Talking about side affects, alternative therapies and anything else that had common sense was NOT misinformation.
Mark Zuckerberg should be in prison for election meddling in the 2016 & 2020 presidential races. There is no doubt that Facebook engaged in illegal activities – regardless of who pressured him!
That pressure was as hard as goose down fluff could bring to bear. Zuckerberg is completely in the tank for the Looniest factions of the Left
The correct response to mis/disinformation is information. Facts. Data. Proof that the misinformation is incorrect.
Not censorship.
Interesting that Zuckerberg is choosing to acknowledge how his social media is complicit in government censorship now, less than 70 days until the next presidential election. Is it possible that he has information that the general public doesn’t?
Cut to the chase, Z.
.
Will you testify, say the same things, in an election-interference prosecution against Biden-Harris?