Meta's Zuckerberg 'Regrets' Caving To Biden's Pressure Before And After 2020 Election

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the social media giant was pressured by the Biden campaign and subsequent administration to “censor” content on Instagram and Facebook during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Writing to Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that White House officials pressurized Meta to remove specific content in 2021. For its part, the Biden administration claimed that it had sought to promote “responsible actions to protect public health and safety.”

Chairman Jordan and his committee have been investigating content censorship on online platforms. Republicans proclaimed the letter as a “big win for free speech.” On its Twitter account, the committee wrote: “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. Big win for free speech.”

Zuckerberg admitted that his team at Meta “demoted” content regarding Hunter Biden, the president’s embattled son, during the run-up to the 2020 election, when the FBI claimed there was a “potential Russian disinformation” operation afoot. Zuckerberg said that the content was, after all, no part of any such operation.

Zuckerberg wrote, "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. 

"We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today.

"I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it."

Zuckerberg went on to claim that he and the social media platform are prepared to “push back” in the case of future such pressure.

"In retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," Zuckerberg wrote. He added, "We've changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn't happen again." He wrote that he doesn’t foresee making any more monetary contribution to supporting electoral systems. Zuckerger donated some $400 million through his Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help governments conduct the electoral process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accusations flew at the time that Zuckerberg sought to skirt maximum donation limits in an effort to see Biden elected to the presidency. These donations, he claimed, “were designed to be non-partisan.”

"Still, despite the analyses I've seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other. 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,” he wrote.

On Politico, the White House declared: “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.”

Zuckerberg's reference to Hunter Biden involved the president’s son and his laptop, which was abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. The story was first reported by the New York Post, which was widely derided for supposedly promoting an alleged Russian disinformation plot. The Post found emails on the computer that it suggested that his business abroad had sought to influence US foreign policy, especially in Ukraine, during his father’s term as vice-president during the Obama administration. President Biden and family members have denied any wrongdoing. 

Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.