Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Biden Administration Pressure For COVID-19 Content Sensors On Meta

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (photo: ig @zuck)

Jakarta-Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, revealed that senior officials in President Joe Biden's administration have repeatedly pressured his social media company to censor content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic. Zuckerberg made this confession in a letter dated August 26 to the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.

In the letter, Zuckerberg stated that pressure from the Biden administration began in 2021, when top officials, including from the White House, actively asked the Meta team to remove certain content related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including humor and satire. According to Zuckerberg, the government showed frustration when Meta refused to comply with some of these requests.

"I believe that the pressure from this government is a wrong move, and I regret that we are no more vocal against it," Zuckerberg wrote in his letter. He also admitted that some of the decisions Meta made in removing certain content may not be taken from the present perspective, with the new knowledge it has gained.

This disclosure was in the spotlight when the Judiciary Committee led by Jim Jordan, a Republican, published Zuckerberg's letter on their Facebook page. The committee called Zuckerberg's recognition of "a major victory for free speech" and accused Meta of censoring Americans during the pandemic.

Not only that, in his letter, Zuckerberg also announced that he would not make a financial contribution to support election infrastructure in the upcoming presidential election this year. He emphasized that this decision was taken so that he would not be involved in the presidential election process next November.

In the 2020 presidential election, Zuckerberg, through the philanthropic initiative of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, donated $400 million to support election infrastructure amid the pandemic. The donation drew criticism and sparked lawsuits from several groups that considered the move partisan.

This letter from Zuckerberg comes amid debate over the role of social media platforms in disseminating information and disinformation, as well as how governments should balance freedom of speech and protect the public from misleading information, particularly in crisis situations such as the global pandemic. Meanwhile, the White House and Meta have not yet provided an official response to the letter.