Mark Zuckerberg reveals that the White House ‘pressured’ Meta to ‘censor’ Covid-19 content

By Edward Era Barbacena 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday admitted his company caved to Biden administration requests to censor content related to COVID-19.

The admission came in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Rep. Jordan in 2023 released “The Facebook Files,” a series of documents accusing the White House of waging a pressure campaign against Facebook and other major social media platforms to censor discourse about COVID-19.

Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was among those affected by the censorship after expressing skepticism of vaccines via Instagram, according to the files.

The House Judiciary GOP touted the letter via X, describing it as a “big win for free speech.”

“Mark Zuckerberg also tells the Judiciary Committee that he won't spend money this election cycle,” it wrote. “That's right, no more Zuck-bucks. Huge win for election integrity.”

Internal Facebook emails acquired by the Wall Street Journal last year showed executives discussing potentially controlling users’ posts on the virus, which further fueled the accusations. The publication wrote Meta had “bowed” to the White House’s demands.

Rep. Jordan on Monday released theletter from Zuckerberg to the House Judiciary Committee. The CEO in his letter admitted his company had complied with the alleged White House pressure campaign.

"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. “I believe the pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

Zuckerberg said the company has since adjusted its internal fact-checking measures and has reevaluated how it will react to government pressure in the future.

The CEO in the letter also addressed his previous support of “electoral infrastructure,” in which he donated funds to provide additional staff and voting machines at polling places. Wisconsin voters in April outlawed the influence of these “Zuckerbucks” in a state constitutional amendment.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed censorship concerns in 2023, saying social media companies are responsible for moderating their own content.

“We have consistently made it clear that we believe social-media companies have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects of their platforms that they have on the American people, while making independent decisions about the content of their platforms,” Jean-Pierre said.

Zuckerberg in July described former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the assassination attempt against him as “one of the most bada-- things I’ve ever seen in my life.” In that conversation, Zuckerberg also said he chose not to endorse either candidate for president in the November election.

That announcement came before President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the race.