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WASHINGTON: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes it was “wrong” for the US government to pressure his social media platform to remove certain coronavirus-related content in 2021 and said he would resist similar attempts in the future, according to a letter submitted to a US congressional committee.
In the letter, addressed to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and released by Republicans on the committee, Zuckerberg addressed a range of controversies surrounding content moderation on his platform.
He also insisted that he did not intend to repeat funding for US election infrastructure ahead of the US election. Presidential Election This year, the donations have been harshly criticized by Republicans.
Zuckerberg’s report to the committee comes just over two months before the intensely contested U.S. presidential election, when false information about the candidates is spreading online and attracting widespread attention.
Regarding the epidemic, the Facebook founder said that the Biden administration “pressurized our team repeatedly for months in 2021 to review certain COVID-19-related content, including humor and satire.”
“I think the government pressure is misguided, and I regret that we haven’t been more vocal about it,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards because of pressure from any government – and if something like this happens again, we are ready to fight back.”
Republicans hailed the letter as a victory, with the GOP House Judiciary Committee’s account on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, calling it a “major victory for free speech.”
In recent months, congressional Republicans have taken aim at social media and technology companies, accusing them of suppressing or censoring conservative viewpoints.
Zuckerberg also said he would not repeat his practice during the coronavirus pandemic of providing funding to nonprofits that support U.S. election infrastructure because Republicans view such donations as partisan.
“My goal is to remain neutral and not play any role in any way or even appear to play any role,” he wrote.
The letter also addressed the controversy over Facebook’s handling of a story published by the New York Post about US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
Zuckerberg said the story was “temporarily downgraded” while Facebook’s fact-checkers investigated the possibility that it could be a “potential Russian disinformation operation.”
Meta’s CEO said the story was ultimately found not to be part of such an action, and that the platform has changed its policies so that posts in the United States are no longer demoted while fact-checkers investigate.
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