Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and owner of Meta, said that Facebook was under pressure from the US government to censor COVID-19-related content during the global quarantine. In a letter to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, he expressed regret over the company’s decision to give in to these demands, reports Komersant ukrainskyi
with reference to Bloomberg.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humour and satire,”
– zuckerberg wrote in the letter.
“The government’s pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more upfront about it.”
– zuckerberg added.
During the anti-pandemic measures, Facebook officials were criticised by opponents of lockdowns, vaccines and mask mandates for removing certain posts. Facebook claimed that such posts contained misinformation about the virus or contradicted their policies. Overall, Facebook has removed more than 20 million pieces of content in just over a year.
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In doing so, Zuckerberg joins other social media executives, including Jack Dorsey, former CEO of blogging platform Twitter, in expressing regret over past instances of content moderation that they believe have gone too far.
There is a growing debate around the world about how far social media companies should go in controlling the comments, images and other content posted by their users. Some platforms believe that they should not interfere when it comes to what users can and cannot say online, while most governments argue that an overly liberal approach could lead to criminal behaviour. For example, French officials arrested Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov over the weekend, claiming that the company had failed to adequately combat crime on the messenger, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Now, on the eve of the US presidential election, where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are running, Zuckerberg is also trying to appear neutral.
“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role in one direction or the other, or even give the impression that I am playing a role,”
– zuckerberg wrote in the letter.