JAKARTA - CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior Joe Biden administration officials had pressured his social media companies to censor COVID-19 content during the pandemic.

In a letter dated August 26, Zuckerberg told the US parliamentary justice committee he regretted not talking about this pressure before, as well as several decisions taken by Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owners regarding the removal of certain content.

"In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed great frustration with our team when we disagreed," Zuckerberg wrote in a letter.

"I'm sure the government's pressure is wrong, and I'm sorry we weren't too outspoken about this," he wrote. "I also think we've made some choices that, by looking back and new information, we won't be taking right now," he added.

The letter was addressed to Jim Jordan, committee chairman and Republican. In a Facebook post, the committee called the letter a major victory for freedom of expression and said Zuckerberg had acknowledged Facebook censored Americans.

In the letter, Zuckerberg also said that he would not contribute anything to support election infrastructure in this year's presidential election so as not to play a role in the United States elections in November 2024.

During the pandemic, the billionaire donated $400 million through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic venture with his wife, to support election infrastructure, a move that has drawn criticism and lawsuits from several groups that say the move was partisan.


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