Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, chairman CEO of Meta, addressed the company’s controversial role in moderating content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic in a statement released Monday, August 26, 2024.
This come as part of Meta’s ongoing cooperation with a congressional investigation into content moderation practices on online platforms.
Zuckerberg’s statement painted bright the pressure exerted by the President Joe Biden administration when the virus had just taken toll on the public.
Zuckerberg first acknowleded the interest of the investigating committee in the actions taken by Meta during the pandemic.
Zuckerberg Regrets
However, Zuckerberg revealed that in 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including those from the White House, pressured Meta for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.
I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” said Zuckerberg.
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This pressure led to significant frustration within Meta when the company did not comply with all the demands.
2020 U.S Presidential Election
Despite the external pressure, Zuckerberg maintained that Meta’s decisions were its own and that the company takes full responsibility for the content moderation changes made during that time.
Zuckerberg also addressed a separate incident related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
He said the FBI had warned Meta about a potential Russian disinformation campaign concerning the Biden family and Burisma.
As a result, when the New York Post published a story alleging corruption involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family, Meta sent the story to fact-checkers and temporarily demoted it while waiting for verification.
Zuckerberg admitted that this decision was a mistake, as the story was not Russian disinformation.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.”
In light of what transpired, the billionaire said Meta has since revised its policies to prevent such actions from happening again, including a decision not to demote content in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checker responses.
