• by Colin Kirkland , August 27, 2024

In a statement Mark Zuckerberg made to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Monday, the Meta CEO said the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” his teams to “censor” content related to COVID-19 on the tech giant's family of apps in 2021, highlighting Republicans' increased scrutiny over major social platforms being biased against conservatives' views of free speech.

“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 did not agree,” Zuckerberg wrote, adding that he regrets not being “more outspoken about it.”

To attempt a more neutral political stance, the Meta CEO also told committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan that he would avoid repeating a 2020 donation to support local election infrastructure. In May, Jordan led an investigation into Meta's communication with the Biden administration during the pandemic.

During the investigation, Andy Slavitt, the former senior advisor to the Biden COVID response team, said that the White House is able to ask, “even implore,” media companies to address misinformation, but that “these companies are the ultimate decision makers about what goes on their platforms.

In response to Zuckerberg's statement, the White House said, “When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety.”

But Zuckerberg sees the issue differently. “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,” he said, adding that he believes tech companies and other private entities should make “independent choices” about the information they present and that the alleged “government pressure was wrong.”

While Meta removed millions of posts across Facebook and Instagram containing misinformation throughout the pandemic, including content posted by individuals, public figures and groups falsifying information about covid vaccines, social platforms also faced public pressure about not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation, which proved harmful to public health.

In addition, after Republican state attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana sued the Biden administration in 2022 for allegedly coercing social media companies into removing misinformation, the Supreme Court ruled this summer that their actions were not unconstitutional and did not violate the First Amendment.