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Meta head Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret for succumbing to pressure from the Biden administration to censor content on Facebook and Instagram during the pandemic.
According to the BBC, he said in a letter to the chairman of the House committee that senior government officials, including members of the White House, had pressured Meta to remove content in 2021.
The White House defended its actions, stressing that it was promoting “responsible actions to protect public health and safety.” Zuckerberg also acknowledged that his company temporarily “demoted” content about Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election after the FBI warned of “potential Russian disinformation.”
However, as Zuckerberg clarified, the content was not part of such an operation.
Speaking about Covid-19 content, Zuckerberg wrote: “In 2021, senior Biden administration officials, including at the White House, pressured our team for months to review specific content about Covid-19, including humor and satire. We made some decisions that we would not make now given today’s knowledge and experience. I believe the pressure from the administration was misguided, and I regret that we didn’t understand it more clearly.”
Zuckerberg stressed that Meta will be prepared to “fight” similar situations in the future. His letter was written to Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating content regulation by online platforms. Republicans praised the letter as a “major victory for free speech.”
The White House defended its actions in a statement posted on Politico’s website, saying: “Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe technology companies and other private actors should consider the impact of their actions on the American people while making independent choices about the information they provide.
Source: protothema.gr
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