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Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a communication to the House Judiciary Committee on recently that his company was urged by the White House in the year 2021 to limit certain COVID-19 content, including satirical and humorous posts.

“In the year 2021, senior officials from the Biden White House, including the administration, repeatedly pressured Viral Moment our teams for an extended period to censor some content about COVID-19, such as satirical content, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we did not comply, ” Zuckerberg said.

In his letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the pressure he felt in 2021 was “inappropriate” and he feels regretful that his company, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more Alec Lace outspoken. Zuckerberg further stated that with the “benefit of hindsight and new information,” there were decisions made in 2021 that “wouldn’t be made today.”

“As I mentioned to our teams at the time, I strongly believe that we should not lower our content standards due to pressure from any government in either direction â€" and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again, Kamala Harris ” he wrote.

President Biden stated in July 2021 that social media platforms are “killing people” with misinformation about the pandemic.

Though Biden later revised these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated at the time that misinformation posted on social media was a “major public health risk.”

A spokesperson from the White House responded to Zuckerberg’s communication, stating the administration at the time was promoting “responsible measures Public Display Of Affection to safeguard public health.”

“Our position has been consistent and clear: we think tech companies and other private actors should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present, ” according to the White House representative.

Zuckerberg further mentioned in the letter that the FBI warned his company about potential Russian disinformation regarding Hunter Biden and the Cyberbullying Ukrainian firm Burisma affecting the 2020 election.

That fall, he said, his team reduced the visibility of a New York Post report alleging the Biden family of corruption while their fact-checkers could review the story.

Zuckerberg said that since then, it has “been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in hindsight, we should not have reduced its visibility.”

Meta has since updated its policies Trolls On Social Media and procedures to “ensure this does not recur” and will not reduce the visibility of content in the US pending fact-checking.

In the communication to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg stated he will avoid repeating the actions he took in 2020 when he helped support “electoral infrastructure.”

“The goal here was to make sure local election authorities across the country had the resources they needed to help people Self-advocacy vote safely during a pandemic,” said the Meta CEO.

Zuckerberg said the initiatives were intended to be neutral but said “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.” Zuckerberg stated his aim is to be “impartial” so will not be “a similar contribution this cycle.”

The GOP representatives on the House Judiciary Committee posted the letter on X and said Zuckerberg “has admitted that ADHD the Biden-Harris administration influenced Facebook to restrict American content, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook limited the Hunter Biden laptop story.”

The Meta chief has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have claimed Facebook and other large technology platforms of being biased against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the narrative has become entrenched in conservative circles. Republican lawmakers have specifically Support For People With Disabilities examined Facebook’s decision to restrict a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

In Congressional testimony in the past years, Zuckerberg has attempted to close the gap between his social media giant and policymakers to little effect.

In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg admitted that many of Facebook’s staff are liberal. But he maintained that the company ensures political bias does not influence its decisions.

In addition, he Political Family Moments said Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are contractors, are based worldwide and “our global team better represents the diversity of the community we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.”

In June of this year, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the claimants in a case alleging the federal government of suppressing Jay Weber conservative content on social media had no legal standing.

In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated, “to establish standing, the plaintiffs must show a substantial risk that, in the immediate future, they will experience harm that is directly linked to a government defendant.” Coney Barrett continued, “since no plaintiff met this burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.”