Did Biden’s White House pressure Mark Zuckerberg to censor COVID content?
Al Jazeera
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the Meta chief said he regretted caving in to government pressure.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has accused United States President Joe Biden’s administration of pressuring his team to censor content on the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter that Republicans have latched on to as alleged evidence of the administration cracking down on free speech.
Zuckerberg said it was “wrong” of the government to pressure social media platforms. He said he regretted buckling to the pressure. The testimony from one of the world’s most influential tech titans comes amid a heated presidential election campaign. Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, have long accused social media platforms of censoring them, and Zuckerberg’s comments are likely to fuel their assertions.
Here’s what Zuckerberg said, how the White House has responded and what the debate is all about.
Zuckerberg wrote the letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, saying White House officials pressured his teams “for months to censor certain COVID-19 content”.
The letter pertains to an ongoing probe that the Republican-majority committee is conducting on online content moderation.
