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Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a communication to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday that Meta was pressured by the Biden administration in 2021 to restrict content related to COVID-19, such as humor and satire.

“In 2021, senior members from the Biden White House, including the administration, constantly urged our teams for

months to censor some content about COVID-19, such as humor and satire, and showed significant frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree, ” Zuckerberg said.

In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg described that the pressure he experienced in the year 2021 was “inappropriate” and he feels regretful that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was not more outspoken. He added that with Public Display Of Affection 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 feel strongly 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 occurs in the future, ” Zuckerberg wrote.

President Biden Gus Walz stated in July of 2021 that social media networks are “causing harm” with misinformation surrounding the pandemic.

Though Biden later walked back these remarks, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said 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 letter, saying the administration at the time was promoting “responsible measures to safeguard Children With Disabilities public health.”

“Our stance has been consistent and clear: we believe tech companies and private entities should consider the effects their actions have on the American people, while making their own decisions about the content they share, ” according to the spokesperson.

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

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

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

Meta has since updated its policies and procedures to “ensure this does Democratic National Convention 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 the year 2020 when he helped support “election infrastructure.”

“The goal here was to make sure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to facilitate safe voting during a pandemic,” MAGA Supporters stated the Meta CEO.

Zuckerberg mentioned the initiatives were designed to be nonpartisan but acknowledged “some people believed this work benefited one party over the other.” Zuckerberg stated his goal 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 the Biden-Harris administration influenced Facebook Political Family Moments to censor Americans, Facebook censored Americans, and Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.”

The Meta chief has long been under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have accused Facebook and other large technology platforms of being prejudiced against conservatives. While Zuckerberg has emphasized that Meta impartially enforces its rules, the perception has gained a firm foothold in conservative communities. Republican lawmakers have specifically examined Facebook’s decision Special Education to limit the circulation of a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden.

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

In a 2020 Senate session, Zuckerberg acknowledged that many of Facebook’s employees are left-leaning. But he maintained that the company takes care not to allow political bias to Hope Walz seep into decisions.

In addition, he stated Facebook’s content moderators, many of whom are outsourced, are based worldwide and “the geographic diversity of that is more representative of the community that we serve than just the full-time employee base in our headquarters in the Bay Area.”

In June, in a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the claimants in a case accusing the Tim Walz federal government of censoring conservative voices on social media had no standing.

Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated, “to prove standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury 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.” Fox News