Zuckerberg says he regrets not being more outspoken about ‘government pressure’ on COVID content

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that he regrets not being more outspoken about “government pressure” to take down content related to COVID-19.

Zuckerberg said senior Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to “censor” content in 2021.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken,” he wrote to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“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 direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” Zuckerberg added. 

The Meta CEO also said the company “shouldn’t have demoted” a New York Post story about corruption allegations involving President Biden’s family ahead of the 2020 election while waiting for fact-checkers to review it. 

The social media company has since updated its policies and processes, including no longer demoting content in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers, he noted. 

Zuckerberg also said in Monday’s letter that he does not plan to make contributions to local jurisdictions to support election infrastructure this cycle, like he did during the 2020 election. 

The contributions, which were “designed to be non-partisan,” were accused of being unfairly distributed between left-leaning and right-leaning areas and labeled “Zuckerbucks” by Republicans.

“Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other,” Zuckerberg 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.” 

House Judiciary Republicans touted the letter as a “big win for free speech” Monday night. 

“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,” the panel wrote on the social platform X. 

“Mark Zuckerberg also tells the Judiciary Committee that he won’t spend money this election cycle. That’s right, no more Zuck-bucks. Huge win for election integrity,” it added. 

Meta and other social media companies have long faced accusations from Republicans of censoring conservative content on their platforms.  

The Biden administration’s communications with social media companies about taking down COVID-19 and election misinformation were at the center of a case before the Supreme Court last term.

In a 6-3 decision in June, the court rejected challenges to officials’ communications with the companies, finding the two Republican attorneys general and private parties that brought the case did not have legal standing. The justices did not rule on the First Amendment issues in the case, however.

“When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

“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,” they added.

Updated Aug. 27 at 9:37 a.m. ET