Zuckerberg Claims White House Pressured Facebook to Censor Covid-19 Memes
According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, officials from the Biden administration pressured Facebook into suppressing Covid-19 memes in 2021. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recounted a significant incident involving the platform's response to demands for censorship related to Covid-19 vaccine discussions. He revealed that Facebook was initially hesitant to censor satirical vaccine memes until pressured by U.S. government officials who “screamed and cursed” at the team.
Zuckerberg discussed the intensity of this pressure and its implications during and after the 2020 election. He expressed his belief that the calls for social media companies to censor content were not legal. "At some level, I do think that having people in the administration calling up the guys on our team and yelling at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don’t take down things that are true...it’s pretty bad,” he stated.
He elaborated on the distinction between the rights protected by the U.S. Constitution and the actions of private companies, noting that while the First Amendment restricts government actions, it does not prohibit companies from engaging in "content moderation."
The specific meme that drew the White House's ire featured a scene from Quentin Tarantino's ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ where Leonardo DiCaprio's character reacts to a television broadcast. The meme suggested a future class-action lawsuit for vaccine-related injuries. In July 2021, President Joe Biden highlighted the dangers of misinformation on social media, asserting that platforms were “killing people” by allowing false narratives about the vaccines to proliferate.
At the time, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated that the government was actively “flagging problematic posts for Facebook,” advocating for a coordinated approach among social media platforms to enforce consistent misinformation guidelines.
The UK-based NGO Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed the White House was leveraging its findings on prolific spreaders of misinformation to inform their strategies.
In response to the comments from Biden and Psaki, Facebook pointed to its efforts to promote vaccination, boasting of having removed 18 million instances of Covid-19 misinformation and shadow-banning 167 million pieces of content deemed false by its fact-checkers.
In a recent shift, Zuckerberg announced the termination of Facebook's fact-checking program, citing concerns over political bias and its unintended consequences. "What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far,” he remarked.
Despite having previously donated over $400 million to support Democrats in 2020, Zuckerberg did not contribute during the last election cycle. He also made headlines for meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in Florida, aiming to foster goodwill.
When Rogan inquired about the censorship of the New York Post's reports on Hunter Biden's laptop, which resulted in the newspaper being restricted from Twitter and shadow-banned on Facebook, Zuckerberg sidestepped the question. He did confirm that Meta had provided all relevant documents concerning censorship efforts to the House Judiciary Committee, where Republican Jim Jordan has since compiled and released a report on the matter.
“Well, they lost the election,” he replied when asked if anyone in the current administration faced repercussions for their actions.
Aarav Patel contributed to this report for TROIB News
Zuckerberg discussed the intensity of this pressure and its implications during and after the 2020 election. He expressed his belief that the calls for social media companies to censor content were not legal. "At some level, I do think that having people in the administration calling up the guys on our team and yelling at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don’t take down things that are true...it’s pretty bad,” he stated.
He elaborated on the distinction between the rights protected by the U.S. Constitution and the actions of private companies, noting that while the First Amendment restricts government actions, it does not prohibit companies from engaging in "content moderation."
The specific meme that drew the White House's ire featured a scene from Quentin Tarantino's ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ where Leonardo DiCaprio's character reacts to a television broadcast. The meme suggested a future class-action lawsuit for vaccine-related injuries. In July 2021, President Joe Biden highlighted the dangers of misinformation on social media, asserting that platforms were “killing people” by allowing false narratives about the vaccines to proliferate.
At the time, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated that the government was actively “flagging problematic posts for Facebook,” advocating for a coordinated approach among social media platforms to enforce consistent misinformation guidelines.
The UK-based NGO Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed the White House was leveraging its findings on prolific spreaders of misinformation to inform their strategies.
In response to the comments from Biden and Psaki, Facebook pointed to its efforts to promote vaccination, boasting of having removed 18 million instances of Covid-19 misinformation and shadow-banning 167 million pieces of content deemed false by its fact-checkers.
In a recent shift, Zuckerberg announced the termination of Facebook's fact-checking program, citing concerns over political bias and its unintended consequences. "What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far,” he remarked.
Despite having previously donated over $400 million to support Democrats in 2020, Zuckerberg did not contribute during the last election cycle. He also made headlines for meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in Florida, aiming to foster goodwill.
When Rogan inquired about the censorship of the New York Post's reports on Hunter Biden's laptop, which resulted in the newspaper being restricted from Twitter and shadow-banned on Facebook, Zuckerberg sidestepped the question. He did confirm that Meta had provided all relevant documents concerning censorship efforts to the House Judiciary Committee, where Republican Jim Jordan has since compiled and released a report on the matter.
“Well, they lost the election,” he replied when asked if anyone in the current administration faced repercussions for their actions.
Aarav Patel contributed to this report for TROIB News
