0
0
Mark Zuckerberg finally admitted that he caved to government censorship pressure. Now that the Biden administration is on the way out, the media is dusting off stories they should have written years ago and act like they discovered fresh news. Zuckerberg was all for it, then, but “regrets” the heavy handed economic interference, now.
Facebook censorship regrets
As the COVID pandemic raged, so did government censorship. The administration simply tapped into the existing network to cover up any mention of Hunter Biden’s nefarious laptop. Meta’s CEO came clean in a letter to House lawmakers.
Senior officials, he wrote, “including some from the White House, pressured Meta to remove content in 2021.” He’s not ready to talk about the great Facebook “purge” of 2018. That’s when he silenced any conservative voice on the platform.
Joe Biden’s handlers defended administration actions, claiming they merely encouraged “responsible actions to protect public health and safety.” The censorship affected anything which didn’t match the official version.
Mark Zuckerberg ADMITS to CENSORING for Biden administration https://t.co/VgbRWl3N3j via @YouTube
— @CPBenj2 (@cpbenj2) August 27, 2024
Now, we know that it was the official version which was the “misinformation.” 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 humor and satire.”
Zuckerberg also acknowledged Facebook and Instagram “censored content relating to Joe Biden’s son. Hunter, in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. election.” Zuckerberg blames the FBI for forcing the censorship.
He trusted the Federal Bureau of Instigation when they lied to him. Knowing full well the laptop was legitimate, the bureau called it “a potential Russian disinformation” operation into the Biden family, “which turned out to be false.”
Benefit of hindsight
Zuckerberg knows now that the censorship was wrong. “We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.” He believes “the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
He was dodging reporters and staunchly backing the administration at the time. He’s ready for it to happen next time. They’re ready to “push back” if “something similar happened in the future.”
Zuckerberg finally admitting the censorship truth is a “big win for free speech,” Republicans say. The letter went to Jim Jordan as chairman of the judiciary committee.
Infobytes: Meta CEO admits Biden-Harris admin pressured company to censor Americans
Mark Zuckerberg: “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
Meta dealt with me ehn and is dealing with me now. pic.twitter.com/NnH35nZXDr
— chidinma onyejiuwa (@chidinma1999) August 27, 2024
They’ve been “investigating content moderation on online platforms.” The White House was quick to issue a response when they heard what Zuckerberg had to say.
“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.”
In other words, they stand behind the censorship, whether it’s constitutional and legal, or not.
