Zuckerberg alleges that the Biden administration engages in suppression of coronavirus-related information.
During the COVID-19 crisis, social media has been a hotspot for false info. As reported by Reuters, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has now voiced concerns over the U.S. government exerting pressure on his company to eliminate specific content. He's made it clear that he won't meddle in this year's elections.
According to a letter penned by Zuckerberg to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, high-ranking officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, put pressure on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp's parent company for months to suppress specific COVID-19 content, including some humor and satire. Zuckerberg wrote, "In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pushed our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content."
Zuckerberg also expressed regret for not speaking out against this pressure earlier and for certain decisions made by his companies to remove this content. He stated, "I believe the government's pressure was wrong, and I regret that we didn't speak out more strongly about it."
This letter was addressed to Jim Jordan, the committee's chairperson and a Republican. The committee hailed this move as a significant victory for free speech and asserted that Zuckerberg had acknowledged Facebook's role in censoring American voices.
In addition, in this year's presidential election, Zuckerberg announced that he would not be offering support for the election infrastructure to prevent being involved in influencing either side of the vote in November.
In the 2020 election, which unfortunately took place during the pandemic, the wealthy entrepreneur donated $400 million to bolster election infrastructure through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his charitable project with his spouse. This move sparked criticism and litigation from certain groups, who deemed it as partisan in nature.
Facebook is facing pressure from high-ranking officials in the Biden administration to censor specific COVID-19 content. Despite this pressure, Facebook is is maintain its commitment to not meddle in this year's elections.
