Mark Zuckerberg regrets bowing to demands by Joe Biden to censor social media messages during pandemic
META chief Mark Zuckerberg “regrets” bowing to demands by President Joe Biden to censor Covid messages during the pandemic.
He revealed the US administration “repeatedly pressured” Facebook and Instagram to hide “certain Covid-19 content”.
Among the messages deemed unacceptable by Mr Biden’s aides were criticism of the vaccine and suggestions that the virus was created in a Chinese lab.
The Wuhan laboratory theory has since been deemed “likely” by FBI chiefs.
In a letter to the chair of the US House Judiciary Committee, Mr Zuckerberg confessed that in 2021 some pandemic messages containing what was perceived to be misinformation, satire and humour were taken down.
He also revealed that ahead of the 2020 US election, Meta temporarily “demoted” content relating to Mr Biden’s scandal-ridden son Hunter.
Mr Zuckerberg claimed that the FBI warned of a “potential Russian disinformation campaign” unless messages about Hunter, who was found guilty of lying about drug use, were effectively buried.
He said: “We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today. I regret we were not more outspoken about it.
“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.”
The billionaire added he is “ready to push back if something like this happens again”.
The committee, led by Donald Trump’s Republican Party, called the letter a “big win for free speech”.