Zuckerberg regrets bowing to White House ‘pressure’ over Covid

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets bowing to what he said was pressure from the Biden administration to “censor” content on Facebook and Instagram during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter sent to a US House committee chair, he said senior officials, including some from the White House, pressured Meta to remove content in 2021.

The White House has defended its actions, saying it encouraged “responsible actions to protect public health and safety”.

Mr Zuckerberg also said his firm briefly “demoted” content relating to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, ahead of the 2020 election, after the FBI warned of “a potential Russian disinformation” operation.

The content did not turn out to be part of such an operation, Mr Zuckerberg said.

Addressing the Covid content, Mr Zuckerberg wrote: “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.

“We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

Mr Zuckerberg said he and Meta would be ready to “push back” if something similar happened in the future.

His letter was addressed to Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee, which has been investigating content moderation on online platforms. Republicans said the letter was a “big win for free speech“.

In a statement issued to the website Politico, the White House stood by its actions.

It said: “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.”

Mr Zuckerberg’s comments on Hunter Biden refer to the story of a laptop that was abandoned by the president’s son at a repair shop in Delaware – as first reported by the New York Post.

The newspaper claimed emails found on the computer suggested his business abroad had influenced US foreign policy while his father was vice-president.

The president and his family have denied any wrongdoing.

The story became a notable right-wing talking point in the US, and a point of contention as some social media platforms censored the content.

“In retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote.

“We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Mr Zuckerberg also said he did not plan to make any more contributions to supporting electoral infrastructure.

In 2020, he donated $400m (£302m) via his philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which was intended to help government offices conduct the election during the pandemic.

However, misinformation spread rapidly on social media accusing Mr Zuckerberg of effectively using a loophole to skirt maximum donation limits in a bid to get Mr Biden elected.

Mr Zuckerberg said his donations “were designed to be non-partisan”.

“Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other.

“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role on way or another – or to even appear to be playing a role – so I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”