Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has accused the US Government of “repeatedly” pressuring his company to censor COVID related content during the pandemic.
Meta owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
The tech boss made the admissionto the House Judiciary Committee — a body in the U.S. Congress that oversees the federal court system and law enforcement.
Zuckerberg said he regretted caving to the alleged pressure and vowed to “push back” if something similar happened again.
Context
Zuckerberg alleged officials from the Biden administration pressured Meta to remove “certain COVID-19 content,” in 2021, “including humour and satire”.
He said the officials “expressed a lot of frustration” when his teams didn’t immediately comply.
Zuckerberg said Meta always made its own decisions on removing content, but that some decisions were made “in the wake of pressure”.
He said he felt Meta compromised its standards and that he regrets not being “more outspoken about it.”
Content policy
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In May 2021, Meta updated its policy on COVID content, shortening the list of types of posts it would take down.
It said it would “no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made” from its apps, “in light of ongoing investigations”.
said it was working with “health experts” to stay on top of COVID updates, and would “regularly update [its] policies as new facts and trends emerge.”
Response
In a statement to U.S. media, the White House said its requests to Meta were to “protect public health and safety”.
It said: “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.”
The letter comes amid an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led committee into social media platforms’ content moderation policies.
Committee member Laurel Lee said the revelation shows the need to “investigate these outrageous actions”.
“We are in the process of exposing political corruption at the highest level and at its worst,” Lee said.
