Mark Zuckerberg ‘regrets’ Meta bowing to alleged Biden pressures during COVID

A letter written by the Facebook founder to Republican Representative Jim Jordan claims that White House officials “repeatedly pressured” Meta to censor the COVID content and “expressed a lot of frustration” when the Meta team did not comply.

The letter, dated Aug. 26, was shared on the official X page of the GOP Judiciary House, which is chaired by Rep. Jordan.

In the letter, Zuckerberg, who has amassed a fortune of $185 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, says he regrets bowing to alleged pressure from the Biden administration during the pandemic.

The entrepreneur wrote: “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to drop content, and we own our decisions, including the COVID-19 changes we made to our app as a result of this pressure.

“I think the pressure from the government was wrong and I regret not being more honest about it.

“I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”

The White House did not immediately respond Of luck request for comment, but issued a statement about how it addressed online content related to the coronavirus.

“When faced with a deadly pandemic, this administration has encouraged responsible action to protect public health and safety,” a spokesperson told Politico. “Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe that technology companies and other private actors should consider the effects their actions have on the American people while making independent choices about the information they present. “

Amid fears of a “tsunami of misinformation” ahead of the November election, Zuckerberg is distancing himself from any future political pressure.

He added: “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards because of pressure from any administration from any direction – and we stand ready to push back if anything like this happens again.”

Overall, Zuckerberg’s letter seeks to disassociate both Meta — which is currently under investigation by the European Commission over claims it is failing to adequately address disinformation — and himself from politics.

At the end of the letter, Zuckerberg adds: “I want to address the contributions we made during the last presidential cycle to support the election infrastructure. The idea here was to make sure that local election jurisdictions across the country have the resources to help people vote safely during a global pandemic.”

Contributions were made through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — a philanthropic body co-founded and led by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan — totaling more than $400 million.

At the time, critics — including former President Trump — claimed without foundation that the funds were being used to elect the Democratic nominee, President Biden.

Indeed, a UCLA study published in May found that funds donated by the billionaire — dubbed “Zuckerbucks” by critics — “did not substantially improve the performance of Democratic candidates.”

The contributions were designed to be nonpartisan and spread across a range of urban and rural communities, Zuckerberg said.

He continued: “However, despite the analysis I’ve seen to the contrary, I know some people believe this work has benefited one side at the expense of the other. My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or the other – or even appear to be playing a role. So I don’t intend to make a similar contribution this cycle.”

Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:

1. Admin Biden-Harris “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans.

2. Facebook censored Americans.

3. Facebook toned down story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K

— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024

Delays in fact checking

In the letter, Zuckerberg also confirms that Meta has dropped its policy of demoting stories until fact-checkers can confirm they are accurate.

The decision was made after Meta was approached by the FBI, Zuckerberg writes, “about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma around the 2020 election.”

Zuckerberg explains: “That fall, when I saw a New York Post reporting on corruption allegations involving the family of then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily downgraded it pending a response.”

In retrospect, Zuckerberg adds, “we shouldn’t have downgraded the story” and as such “we’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The letter and the information in Zuckerberg’s letter were praised by the GOP. Despite evidence that Zuckerberg’s donations made no difference in the outcome of the election, the House Judiciary GOP wrote of Elon Musk-owned X: “No more Zuck-bucks. Huge win for election integrity.”

Meta did not immediately respond Of luck request for comment.