Senior officials from the Biden administration and White House repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor – Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has alleged that Joe Biden and his administration pressured the company. He also expressed his regret for his wrongdoings under governmental pressure.
Mark specifically highlighted Biden and his team’s pressure during COVID-19. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Mark admitted that his company faced pressure from the Biden-Harris administration. He mentioned humor and satire as the specific content that the government ordered to censor.
Mark wrote in his letter, “Senior officials from the Biden administration and White House repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.”
However, the Meta owner also accepted his mistake and regretted it. He said, “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure.”
Mark Zuckerberg added, “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
This is not the first time Meta or Facebook has used the platform for personal benefits. They have also been alleged to sell users’ data to third parties, especially on e-commerce platforms.
Even a large number of Facebook users in India complain that the platform reduces their reach when they post anything against the government. However, since the platform favors the ruling government, no action is taken against it.
Mark Zuckerberg ensured to not compromise with standards
However, later in the letter, Mark covered his mistakes. He said, “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens.”
Zuckerberg made all these statements in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee. He also mentioned in the letter that the company initially denied the censoring. The Meta owner sent this letter to help the committee investigate whether Biden pressured private companies.
Also read: Will Telegram Be Completely Banned in India? Why?
