Zuckerberg: Biden Admin, FBI ‘Repeatedly Pressured’ Facebook to ‘Censor’ COVID Content, Hunter Biden Story
“Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either decision – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan that Joe Biden’s administration “repeatedly pressured” Faceboook to censor some COVID content and throttle the Hunter Biden story.
The admin even showed frustration when the company refused.
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.
2. Facebook censored Americans.
3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
“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, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” wrote Zuckerberg.
Remember when Biden told the press that Facebook was “killing people” by allowing the spread of COVID misinformation? I do!
The CEO admitted the company ultimately decided when and what to censor, and all of them “own our decisions.”
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” continued Zuckerberg. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make it today.”
Zuckerberg added: “Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either decision – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Yeah, we covered a few times Facebook made such moves:
- Twitter and Facebook Remove Trump Video, Claiming COVID “Misinformation” Violations
- Facebook Ends Ban on Posts Describing COVID-19 as Man-Made
- Facebook Removed COVID Posts, Memes Due to Pressure From Biden Admin
- Biden Admin Demanded Facebook Suppress Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren to Control COVID Narrative
But then Zuckerberg also admitted the FBI pressured Facebook to suppress The New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in October 2020.
Zuckerberg told Jordan that the FBI had approached Facebook “about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election.”
The CEO didn’t say when that happened, but I guess before The New York Post dropped the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in October 2020.
Once the story surfaced, Facebook demoted the story until fact-checkers could confirm the story.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” stated Zuckerberg. “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again – for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.”
Yeah, we also knew the FBI pressured Facebook to suppress the story:
- Facebook, Twitter ‘Reducing’ the Distribution of New York Post Story on Hunter Biden Emails
- Zuckerberg: Facebook Throttled Hunter Biden Laptop Story After FBI Warned Of Potential ‘Russian Propaganda’
- Whistleblowers Confirm FBI Knew Hunter Biden Laptop was Authentic Before Meeting With Twitter, Facebook
- #TwitterFiles Part 7 – FBI and DOJ Worked To Discredit Reports of Hunter Biden’s Foreign Business Dealings
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Comments
IRS deep audit in 3 2 1
as true as it is about the fjb interference with the social media ( wasnt that ruled ok by the courts?:(
it would then serve to the point that the assault against trump and his Orange Army, via the social media IS TRUE b/c of the fear installed by the fjb admin attacks against them as meta etc tries to prove to the dnc that they are cooperating
june 2024 wired:
Today, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the plaintiffs who’d sued the US government for allegedly violating the First Amendment—by communicating with social media companies about misleading and harmful content on their platforms—did not present enough evidence to prove that they had standing to sue.
The case was brought by the attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that government agencies have had undue influence on the content moderation practices of platforms and coerced the platforms into taking down conservative-leaning content, infringing on the First Amendment rights of their citizens. Specifica
Today, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the plaintiffs who’d sued the US government for allegedly violating the First Amendment—by communicating with social media companies about misleading and harmful content on their platforms
Break Meta up into competing entities just like AT&T was broken up. This way there’s not only robust competition for the exact spaces Meta operates in but makes it more difficult for a future gov’t to achieve the same censorship goals. Much more difficult to gain compliance from five or six separate competitors than a single entity…not to mention the risk that one of them may choose to expose the censorship scheme to the public.
well ATT was broken up b/c it was the government that created (as onlyyy the ogvernment can do) the monopoly
meta and google etc are not monopolies despite what we get told
the free market chooses those lunatics same way we choose this website and the rest
and you know as well as I do that when the government acts insidious ….nothing stops them but a “restless” populace
‘Meta… is not a monopoly’. Interesting claim you are making but does the data support it? Can you tell us:
1. What companies are the direct competitors of FB offering the same services and what is the market share of those companies and of FB?
2. What companies are the direct competitors of Instagram offering the same services and what is the market share of those companies and of Instagram?
a true monopoly can only maintain that status through government backed support..
laws/regs/military
and to THAT degree they do have that going in their favor
recall Zucks demanding that the government actually regulate them
but as long as the free market can make competition to them WITHOUT being thwarted by the gov..its a free market
so if there is a monopoly situation it cant be laid at the feet of Zuck or musk etc
only at the door of the lefty loving government over the people agenda
and to answer your exact question
no I can nottt answer that question (data etc)
I have to continue to make money …takes some time 🙂
How about simply naming the direct competitors to FB and Instagram who compete in the same space offering the same services?
Let’s take your contention as true that gov’t support must exist for a ‘true monopoly’. That would apply to both explicit and implicit acts as well as the govt simply refraining from acting against the particular entity. If the govt wants a single ‘button’ to push for censorship in the space occupied by that entity instead of the pain in the ass of trying to corral five or six entries in each space one can easily see how refusing to bust up FB or Instagram would assist the gov’t censorship goal.
You should NEVER rely on social media for news, for that is media’s desire. A dumb populace goverened by idiots is within their wheelhouse, for idiots love sensational news and destruction.
2021 Zuckerberg never imagined X would be flipped by Musk. He never imagined
@mtaibbi would get his hands on, and publish, X’s internal censorship docs. He never imagined Obama Inc. might fail to liquidate any and all political opposition.
Zuck could’ve slow-walked implementing the censorship scheme, but nah, he went full Soviet Lavrentiy Beria zealot on Americans.
And now that he’s been exposed, he produces a memo acknowledging ‘Meta’s’ most public failings. It’s an incomplete testimonial designed to trick his allies while softening the opposition’s righteous determination to smite Meta into oblivion.
Alternatively, perhaps he is having a little “buyer’s remorse” on the benefits of the proposed next steps of socialism – much higher corporate and personal income taxes and taxes on unrealized capital gains.
Zuck’s unbounded hubris in apologetic retrospect.
“Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either decision – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
TL;DR: “Shit, I got caught. And my patron has been beheaded. Please don’t kill me.”
And what’s his excuse for showering blue districts in $400-million of Zuckerbucks? Newsome skimmed his credit card at the French Laundry?
“Internal FB emails confirm Zuckerberg’s reluctance,” is something being batted around.
I totally trust FB’s documentary-archival provenance.
So … is FarceBook trying to imply that every news story that appears on its hallowed site has been “fact-checked” by them?? Does FarceBook demote every news story until it is fart-checked?? That would put a real damper on the so-called “news” one could get on FartBook.
Zuckerberg is a despicable worm. He should have been run into prison for his election interference, cheating, and all-around treason concerning the 2020 election.
True blue progressives and their colleagues in elite America could care less. They only want to win and impose their will on others, to dish out pain from which they are immune.
More and more people seem to be emerging from the darkness.
ask Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu
how that worked out….
This slimy little rat is only trying to take some of the heat off of himself that will come from the incoming Trump admin.
Facebook has no business moderating content, period. Those who post reliable content will,over time, garner followers.
The KEY word in this is the word “Pressured”. With liberals that can mean a simple “Can you do this for us?” or “Would you like for me to do this for you?” I would not trust anything this man says.
Zuckerberg shouldn’t have been a cowed, emasculated cuck, cowering before the FBI’s intimidation tactics — he could have shown some cojones and told the Dhimmi-crats’ Stasi/NKVD division to go fornicate with themselves. But, he chose to meekly submit and go along, to get along.
Zuck may have a black belt in whatever martial arts discipline, but, when the time came to stand up and display some modicum of backbone, moral probity and integrity, he couldn’t do so,
And, SCOTUS’s disgraceful, recent decision on Deep State censorship gives the imprimatur of legitimacy to the vile Dhimmi-crats’ obnoxious, lawless and totalitarian censorship tactics, and, ensures that they will continue, unabated.
And Comrade Zucky is still doing it. Get stuffed Zuckerturd.
Zuck and his company reacted in a predictable and rational way to market forces. In this case threats to destroy his company if he didn’t play ball. The fault is not his, it’s with the Democrats and deep state demanding he comply with their dictates or else.
I reject your thesis, entirely.
Zuck is not a small business owner, with limited resources. He is a multi-billionaire owner of a mega-cap, publicly traded company. Facebook/Meta has massive financial resources, highly competent in-house counsel, and, any number of top-tier law firms, at its disposable.
Zuck could have and should have fought this. He simply chose the path of political expediency.
Contrast this feckless and meek timidity, with Elon Musk’s attitude, vis-a-vis obnoxious and lawless government coercion — he sues.
Easy to say.
Just remember how the DOJ punished Microsoft for its failure to fund its fair share of the K Street lobbyist ecosystem: “OMG, they monopolistically bundled their own lucrative browser!!” Seems pretty hilariously ridiculous now, but it wasn’t back then… to the richest man in the world.
How? The Dems in Congress would have passed a law that changed his companies classification and that would have been that. No company can survive a direct onslaught of the US Government.
Zuckerberg also admitted the FBI pressured Facebook to suppress The New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in October 2020.
.. I can understand some of the efforts involving the COVID pandemic, but the Hunter Biden laptop story (and the daughter’s diary) has nothing to do with government business. This story is about the Biden family, and the FBI and other agencies don’t work for the Biden family.
Except that FB is still censoring real info. Trump assassination photos removed. Accounts removed of biologists that question gender re-assignment. Etc.
Who believes any of this? Zuckerberg was a willing participant not a poor, put upon ordinary joe under the thumb of the state.
How is this pressure to censor not election inerference under the definitions used by the Dems?
Democrats can lie under oath at these hearings and NOTHING will happen to them, except job offers at CNNMSDNCUSSR