Social Dominance | zucke27 | Vice Presidential Nominee
Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was urged by the White House in the year 2021 to limit certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.
âIn the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden White House, including the administration, constantly urged our teams for Viral Video an extended period to remove certain COVID-19 content, including satirical content, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we didnât agree, â Zuckerberg noted.
In his communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the influence he experienced in the year 2021 was âinappropriateâ and he regrets that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more vocal. Zuckerberg further stated that with the Public Display Of Affection âbenefit of hindsight and new information,â there were decisions made in 2021 that âwouldnât be made today.â
âLike I told our teams back then, I strongly believe that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any government in either direction â" and weâre prepared to resist if something like this occurs in the future, â Zuckerberg wrote.
President Biden remarked in July of Social Media Criticism 2021 that social media platforms are âkilling peopleâ with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a âserious threat to public health.â
A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerbergâs communication, saying the administration at the time was promoting âresponsible measures to safeguard public health.â
âOur position
has been clear and consistent: we think tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making their own decisions about the content they share, â according to the White House representative.
Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI alerted his company about possible Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian firm Ann Coulter Burisma affecting the election in 2020.
That fall, he said, his team reduced the visibility of a New York Post report alleging Biden family corruption while their fact-checkers could review the story.
Zuckerberg stated that since then, it has âbeen made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we should not have reduced its visibility.â
Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to Viral Moment âensure this does not recurâ and will no longer demote content in the US while waiting for fact-checkers.
In the communication to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said he will not repeat actions he took in the year 2020 when he assisted âelection infrastructure.â
âThe goal here was to ensure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to help people vote safely during Free Menstrual Products a pandemic,â said the Meta CEO.
Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged âsome people believed this work benefited one party over the other.â He stated his goal is to be âneutralâ so he will not make âa similar contribution this cycle.â
The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee shared the letter on X and claimed Zuckerberg âhas admitted that the Biden-Harris Gus Walz administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans, Facebook restricted content, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.â
The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other major tech platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has stressed that Meta enforces its rules impartially, the perception has become entrenched in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebookâs Self-advocacy decision to restrict a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.
In Congressional testimony in recent years, Zuckerberg has sought to bridge the divide between his social media company and policymakers to limited success.
In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebookâs employees are liberal. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to seep into decisions.
In MAGA Supporters addition, he said Facebookâs content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and âour global team better represents the diversity of the community we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.â
In June, in a win for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal government of suppressing Acceptance Speech conservative content on social media had no legal standing.
In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, âto prove standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant.â Coney Barrett continued, âsince no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to request a preliminary injunction.â