Zuckerberg alleges White House ‘pressured’ Meta to ‘censor’ Covid-19 content

The Biden Administration “pressured” Facebook-parent Meta to “censor” content related to Covid-19, the social media giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleged, adding that he regrets some of the decisions taken in relation to the U.S. government’s requests.

“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, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.

The letter was posted on the Committee’s Facebook page and on its account on the X social media platform on Monday.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the letter’s authenticity to CNBC.

Zuckerberg said it was ultimately Meta’s decision to take down any content, but he noted he believes that the so-called “government pressure was wrong.”

“I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg said.

NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment Tuesday morning, but did not immediately receive a response.

In a statement to Politico, the White House said: “When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety.”

“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,” it added.

Zuckerberg said Meta made some choices that, “with the benefit of hindsight and new information,” the tech giant would not make again.

“Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” Zuckerberg said.

In August 2021, Facebook said it had removed more than 20 million posts related to Covid-19 for violating its content rules across the main social networking site and Instagram.

That year, the White House criticized social media firms, including Facebook, for allowing misinformation related to the Coronavirus to spread across their platforms.

Zuckerberg’s letter underscores the ongoing debate about the extent to which social media firms should moderate content.

The House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has alleged that big technology firms colluded with the government to censor speech.

Zuckerberg also discussed his position on the upcoming U.S. presidential vote, noting that he made contributions via the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative toward electoral infrastructure during the previous round at the polls. He said he will not be doing that for the upcoming election.

“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another — or to even appear to be playing a role,” Zuckerberg said.