Zuckerberg: I ​​'regret' giving in to pandemic censorship pressure

Author: Martin Young, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Baishui, Golden Finance

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook was "pressured" by the Biden administration to censor content related to the new coronavirus during the epidemic and expressed regret for succumbing to these demands.

On August 26, the tech billionaire sent a letter to Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expressing concerns about content moderation on social media platforms in an ongoing investigation.

He claimed that senior officials in the Biden administration "repeatedly pressured" the company in 2021 to censor certain information related to the new coronavirus, "including humor and satire."

He said that ultimately it was the Meta team's decision to censor content, but they made some choices that they would not do today if "in hindsight, with new information," they would not do again.

“I think the government pressure is wrong, and I regret that we haven’t been more outspoken about it.”

“I feel strongly that we should not lower our content standards because of pressure from any government,” he said.

Excerpt from Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to Jim Jordan. Source: House Judiciary Committee

In the same letter, the Meta CEO also said that he regretted downgrading a story involving Russian disinformation and Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 while he waited for fact-checkers.

He said the platform was under scrutiny for censorship at the time and that policies have since changed to prevent it from happening again.

The letter drew a strong reaction from decentralization and free speech advocates on X.

Gabor Gubacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, shared the letter in a post on X, saying he was glad Zuckerberg had gone public with the matter, adding:

“Every official who illegally pressured media companies to censor their users should be named, investigated, and tried in court.”

“People are fed up. Governments do not control speech. The earth is not a prison, and they are not our jailers,” he added.

Meanwhile, US Senator Mike Lee of Utah asked: “Who else wants Mark Zuckerberg to repent before the damage is done — not years later?”

Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk told his 3.3 million X followers that “we should support our American industry leaders in getting these things right”, before adding:

“Given what has happened, distrust and skepticism are appropriate, but I’m glad to see Zuckerberg as a defender of free speech.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk reiterated that his social media platform X “is truly designed to support all viewpoints within the laws of all countries”.

He added that Zuckerberg’s confession was “a step in the right direction”.

Source: Musk

In April, it was reported that Wikipedia was allegedly combating false information about the COVID-19 epidemic, which critics called censorship.