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Author: Martin Young, CoinTelegraph; Compilation: Baishui, Bitchain Vision
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook was “pressured” by the Biden administration during the pandemic to censor content related to the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed regret for succumbing to these demands.
On August 26, the tech billionaire sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to express concerns about content reviews on social media platforms in the ongoing investigation.
He claimed that senior Biden administration officials “many times” pressed the company to review certain information related to the COVID-19 pandemic, “including humor and irony.”
He said the final review was the Meta team’s decision, but they made some choices that if “hindsight, there was new information” they wouldn’t do it today.
“I think the government’s pressure is wrong, and I’m sorry we are not more outspoken about it.”
He said: “I feel it strongly, We should not lower our content standards because of pressure from any government.”
Excerpt from Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to Jim Jordan.Source: House Judicial Committee
In the same letter, Meta CEO also stated thatHe regrets being demoted in 2020 while awaiting fact-checks for a report involving Russian disinformation and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
He said the platform was under scrutiny for censorship at the time and policy has since changed to prevent it from happening again.
The letter sparked a strong reaction from advocates of decentralization and freedom of speech on X.
Gabor Gubacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, shared the letter in a post on X, expressing his gratitude that Zuckerberg made the matter public, adding:
“Every official who illegally presses media companies to review their users should be named, investigated and tried in court.”
“People have had enough. The government does not control speech. The earth is not a prison, nor are they our guards,” he added.
Meanwhile, Utah Senator Mike Lee asked, “Who else would hope Mark Zuckerberg regretted it before causing damage—not a few years later?”
Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk told his 3.3 million X fans that “we should support our American industry leaders to get these things done” and then added:
“Distrust and suspicion are appropriate considering what has happened, but I’m happy to see Zuckerberg become a defender of freedom of speech.”
Tech billionaire ElonMusk reiterated that his social media platform X “is indeed intended to support all perspectives within the scope of the laws of each country.”
He added that Zuckerberg’s confession was “a step in the right direction.”
Source: Musk
In April, reports were reported that Wikipedia was allegedly fighting false information about the COVID-19 outbreak, which critics called censorship.
