Zuckerberg: White House Pressured Facebook Over COVID Info
Zuckerberg: White House Pressured Facebook Over COVID Info
The Facts
In a letter to US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) made public Tuesday but dated Aug. 26, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Biden administration officials "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to take down "certain COVID-19 content" over the course of several months in 2021.
Zuckerberg expressed regret that his company wasn't more "outspoken" about the alleged pressure and wrote that Meta "made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information," it wouldn't make now or in the future.
The Spin
This is a victory for free speech in the US and around the world. By standing up to government pressure, Zuckerberg is committing to allowing a free flow of ideas on his platforms, regardless of what side of the political spectrum those ideas come from. No government has the right to censor information it doesn't like.
Meta knows how dangerous the misinformation it removed from its platform was, especially at the height of the pandemic. The Supreme Court has confirmed the administration's right to continue working with social media platforms, and Zuckerberg should take that as a responsibility his company has to protect the public.
