According to CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was under pressure from the US government to filter Covid-19 information during the outbreak.
In the letter, which Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee disclosed and addressed to Chairman Jim Jordan, Mr. Zuckerberg addressed many issues related to content moderation on his platforms.
In addition, he said that he had no intention of continuing to support US electoral infrastructure in advance of this year’s presidential election—donations that had been met with stern opposition from Republicans.
Just over two months have passed since a hotly contested US presidential election, during which much of the candidates’ internet disinformation was circulated. Mr. Zuckerberg’s contribution to the committee arrives at this time.
The creator of Facebook said that the Biden administration had “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire” in 2021, in reference to the epidemic.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote, reports RTE.
“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,” reports RTE.
Republicans hailed the letter as a “huge win for free speech,” according to the House Judiciary Committee account on social networking site X, which was formerly Twitter.
In recent months, Republicans in Congress have been focussing on social media and digital businesses, accusing them of stifling or banning conservative viewpoints.
“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another – or to even appear to be playing a role,” he wrote.
“When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety,” the White House said in a statement, reports RTE.
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present,” reports RTE.
The letter also discussed the issue over Facebook’s treatment of a New York Post report on US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the item was “temporarily demoted” as Facebook’s fact-checkers looked into the likelihood that it was “a potential Russian disinformation operation.”
The CEO of Meta announced that the article was eventually determined not to be a part of this kind of operation, and that the platform has modified its guidelines so that postings in the US are no longer removed while fact checkers look into them, reports RTE.
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