Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a shocking letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan released on Monday evening, admitted that senior officials in the Biden-Harris administration "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to suppress information related to Covid.
Zuckerberg said Facebook would not have censored the content had the Biden-Harris team not pressured the platform and said administration officials “expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree.”
Facebook on several occasions censored WorldTribune.com reporting on Covid, with links to our articles met with a popup that said "the link you tried to visit goes against our community standards."
Related: Days before election, Facebook suspended WorldTribune, warned its readers, November 7, 2022
"I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it," reads the letter. "I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today."
Zuckerberg also claimed he’s committed and "ready to push back if something like this happens again."
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In a statement released in response to Zuckerberg’s letter, the White House did not deny pressuring Facebook to censor content. The Biden-Harris team defended its pressure campaign on Big Tech companies.
“When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety,” the statement said. “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.”
In releasing the letter Monday night, the House Judiciary Committee said it was a “big win for free speech.”
Whether Republicans led by House Speaker Mike Johnson do anything beyond holding hearings is another story. Those of us who were deeply impacted by the censorship are not holding our breath awaiting accountability.
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. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K — House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
