Zuckerberg: White House 'pressured' Facebook during pandemic

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says the United States government put his social media platforms under pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to Jim Jordan, the chair of the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg alleges that senior White House officials "repeatedly pressured" Facebook to take down "certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire" over a period of several months in 2021.

And he said the officials "expressed a lot of frustration" when the company didn't agree.

Government was 'wrong' to apply pressure, Zuckerberg says

Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta which also operates Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, said that any decisions on content removal were ultimately made by the business and not the government, but said he "regrets" not having been more outspoken about it.

"I believe government pressure was wrong," he wrote, saying the business made some decisions which it would not make today.

"I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction — and we're ready to push back if something like this happens again."

How has the White House responded?

In response, the White House released a statement saying the Biden administration had "encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety" when "confronted with a deadly pandemic."

It added, "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."

At the time, President Joe Biden had gone so far as to say that lies being spread on platforms like Facebook were "killing people."

What role will social media play in the US election?

Zuckerberg's letter comes ahead of a US presidential election in November which experts warn could be threatened by misinformation exacerbated by artificial intelligence.

But moves by tech companies to monitor and remove demonstrably false and misleading information have been derided by conservatives as censorship of free speech.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Zuckerberg also donated $400 million to help fund protective equipment, drive-thru voting locations and postal vote processing — all measures designed to make the election as accessible as possible during the pandemic.

"I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other," he wrote, despite stating that analysis he had seen suggested otherwise.

"My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another — or to even appear to be playing a role. So I don't plan on making a similar contribution this cycle."

mf/nm (dpa, AP)