Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior officials from the Biden administration pressured Facebook to "censor" some COVID-19 content during the pandemic and vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again.
In a letter to US Representative Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Mr Zuckerberg alleged tha
He added that the concerned Democrats "expressed a lot of frustration" when the company didn't agree with their demands.
"I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it," Mr Zuckerberg wrote in the letter dated August 26.
"I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today," he said, without elaborating.
"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."
The letter is the latest repudiation by Mr Zuckerberg of efforts to target misinformation around the pandemic during and after the 2020 presidential election, particularly as allegations have emerged that some posts were deleted or restricted wrongly.
In response, the White House said in a statement:
"When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. 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."
Conservatives have long derided Facebook and other major tech companies as favouring liberal priorities and accused them of censorship.
Mr Zuckerberg has tried to change the company's perception on the right, going on podcaster Joe Rogan's show in 2022 and complimenting Republican nominee Donald Trump's response to an assassination attempt as "badass". He sent Monday's letter to Mr Jordan, who is a longtime Trump ally.
The Meta CEO also said he would no longer donate money to widen election access for voters through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the company that runs the philanthropy for him and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
The couple previously donated $400 million to help local election offices prepare for voters in the 2020 presidential election, with funds used for protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID at polling sites, drive-through voting locations and equipment to process mail ballots.
"I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other" despite analyses showing otherwise, he said. "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."
Rampant pandemic-era misinformation on Facebook
Experts warn this year's US election could be swamped by misinformation on social media with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other tools to produce false news stories and content that could mislead voters.
In March 2021, Facebook said it would start adding what Mr Zuckerberg called labels with "credible information" to posts about COVID-19 vaccines. The year prior, it introduced measures to alert users if they shared or interacted with dangerous COVID-19 misinformation.
The Harvard Kennedy School's Misinformation Review found close to half of the Facebook posts related to COVID-19 vaccines between March 2020 and 2021 were misinformation, and more than one in five fact-checking posts on the topic also repeated the original false claim in their correction.
Social media's role in the spread of misinformation was said to have threatened peoples' lives extensively, according to the World Health Organisation.
US President Joe Biden in 2021 blamed social media platforms like Facebook for "killing people" during the pandemic.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time the Biden administration maintained regular contact with the company to flag problematic posts.
ABC/AP
