Former Parler CEO reacts to news that Biden White House pressured Meta to censor Americans: 'Not surprising'
Former CEO of the free speech social network Parler reacted to news that the Biden-Harris White House pressured Meta into censoring Americans, adding to the already tumultuous news cycle raising censorship concerns in the wake of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's arrest in France.
"This is not surprising at all," John Matze said of the pressure the White House reportedly placed on Meta.
"If you look back in 2020, when I was running Parler, we were confronted with similar force, and warnings from the FBI to also censor the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, and we chose not to. It was obvious that that was inappropriate, and we stood up to that. And now that the Biden administration is doing that or has been doing that to Facebook, it's not surprising at all."
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"What's kind of surprising to me, well, is that a tech executive isn't taking a principled stance against the government interfering with how it should run its company," he added.
Matze joined FOX Business' Stuart Varney on Tuesday where he discussed both Zuckerberg's claims as well as Durov's arrest, which has raised eyebrows among many free speech advocates, including former independent presidential candidate RFK, Jr. and business magnate Elon Musk, for allegedly creating a slippery slope for private platforms.
"If I were Mark Zuckerberg, and if I were Elon Musk, I would be petrified to go to France right now because they are equally as responsible for the content under that apparent law as Pavel Durov is," he said.
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"It's selective prosecution is what this is. It's terrible, and it sets a terrible precedent for the world in the tech space."
Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday night in relation to a preliminary police investigation regarding his company's messaging app since French police believe there's an insufficient number of moderators to control criminal activity on the platform, TF1 TV reported.
On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that the Biden-Harris White House particularly pressured his company into censoring COVID-19 information online.
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Zuckerberg also said a dozen Meta employees would be available for transcribed interview, showcasing a willingness to cooperate with the investigation.
"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure," Zuckerberg wrote. "I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.
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Fox News' Hanna Panreck and FOX Business' Greg Wehner contributed to this report.