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Meta CEO Admits Biden-Harris Administration Pressured Company to Censor Americans
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Meta CEO Admits Biden-Harris Administration Pressured Company to Censor Americans

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter Monday that his company, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans, particularly regarding COVID-19 content.

Zuckerberg made the admission in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), more than a year after he provided the committee with thousands of documents as part of its investigation into content moderation on online platforms.

Meta’s CEO said that in addition to the documents, the company has also made a dozen employees available to transcribe interviews, underscoring Meta’s cooperation with the investigation.

“There’s a lot of conversation right now about how the U.S. government treats companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Our platforms are for everyone — we promote expression and help people connect with each other safely. As part of that, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with a variety of concerns about public discourse and public safety.”

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Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden-Harris administration pressured his company to censor COVID-19 content posted by Americans. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Getty Images)

He told Jordan that in 2021, “senior officials” in the Biden administration and the White House “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.”

When Facebook didn’t agree to the censorship, Zuckerberg said, the Biden administration expressed a lot of frustration.

“Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to remove content, and we are accountable for our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I believe the government pressure was misguided, and I regret that we were not more public about it.

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Jim Jordan

Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday admitting he was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans during the pandemic. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

“I also think we made some choices that, given what we know now and the new information, we would not make today,” he added. “As I said to our teams at the time, I don’t think we should compromise our content standards in response to pressure from any government in any direction — and we’re prepared to push back if that happens.”

A White House spokesperson responded to Fox News: “When faced with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position is clear and consistent: We believe technology companies and other private actors must consider the effects their actions have on the American people while making independent choices about the information they present.”

Facebook declined to comment on the text of the letter.

On February 15, 2023, the Commission first summoned Meta for documents and information related to content moderation and Meta’s collaboration with the executive branch to censor expression.

The committee investigated at the time whether and to what extent the executive branch pressured or colluded with private companies to suppress or repress certain forms of free speech at the request of the government, potentially violating the First Amendment.

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Facebook phone

In Monday’s letter, Zuckerberg also wrote about limiting the story about the Hunter Biden laptop.

He wrote that the FBI had warned his company about “a potential Russian disinformation campaign” involving the Biden family and Burisma, ahead of the 2020 election.

Zuckerberg said the New York Post reported corruption allegations surrounding Biden’s family in the fall, so they had fact-checkers review the story and temporarily downgraded it pending a response.

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“It has since become clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight we should not have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We have changed our policies and processes to ensure that doesn’t happen again. For example, we no longer temporarily demote things in the US while we wait for fact checkers.”

Fox News’ Kate Sprague contributed to this report.