Mark Zuckerberg Says Biden Admin 'Pushed Meta Super Hard' to Censor Covid-19 Content

Washington: Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced an end to the third-party fact-checking programme on its platforms to which Biden responded by calling the decision ‘very shameful’ and something that is ‘against what America stands for’. Amid this, Zuckerberg has made shocking claims against the Biden administration, alleging that they coerced Facebook into censoring content around Covid19 vaccines.

‘Biden Govt Coerced FB Into Censoring Content’

Accusing the Biden government of forcing Facebook into censoring its content at the time of Covid19, Zuckerberg has made the statement at the Joe Rogan Podcast. During the interview spanning several topics, Zuckerberg spoke about the issue of government censorship and noted, "This hit the most extreme. I'd say it was during the Biden Administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program. Now I'm generally pretty pro rolling out vaccines, I think on balance the vaccines are more positive than negative but I think that while they're trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who was arguing against it".

"They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true. I mean, they basically pushed us and said, 'You know anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you need to take down' and I was just like well we're not going to do that'", Zuckerberg added. He said that people in the Biden Administration told him "to take down things that talk about vaccine side effects".

‘Biden Administration Would Call Up Our Team, Scream at Them and Curse’

Referring to the investigation and committee set up to look into the government censorship, Mark Zuckerberg said, "We produced all these documents and it's all in the public domain. I mean these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and scream at them and curse".

Zuckerberg further added, "It just got to this point where we were like, no, we're not gonna take down true things. That's ridiculous. They want us to take down this meme of Leonardo DiCaprio looking at a TV talking about how 10 years from now or something, you're going to see an ad that says, okay, if you took a COVID vaccine, you're eligible for this kind of payment, this sort of like class action lawsuit type meme. And they're like, no, you have to take that down. We said, no, we're not going to take down humour and satire. We're not going to take down true things. And then at some point, I guess, I don't know, it flipped a bit. I mean, Biden gave some statement at some point, I don't know if it was a press conference or to some journalists where he was like, these guys are killing people. And, and, I don't know, then like all these different agencies and branches of government just like started investigating coming after our company. It was, it was brutal. It was brutal."

Mark Zuckerberg's Decision to Do Away with Fact-Checking

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said on Tuesday that it's scrapping its third-party fact checking programme and replacing it with a Community Notes programme written by users similar to the model used by Elon Musk's social media platform X. Starting in the US, Meta will end its fact checking programme with independent third parties. The company said it decided to end the programme because expert fact checkers had their own biases and too much content ended up being fact checked. 

Meta said that its approach of building complex systems to manage content on its platforms has “gone too far” and has made “too many mistakes” and censored too much content. CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that the changes are in part sparked by of Donald Trump 's presidential election victory. “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards tower once again prioritising speech,” Zuckerberg said in an online video.

Meta will pivot to a Community Notes model. “We've seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context,” Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a blog post. The social media company also said plans to allow “more speech” by lifting some restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discussion in order to focus on illegal and “high severity violations” like terrorism, child sexual exploitation and drugs.

‘Very Shameful’: Biden's Slams Zuckerberg and Meta

During a press conference at the White House, US President Joe Biden was asked his opinion on Meta's decision to do away with the traditional third party fact-checking programme. Condemning the tech giant's decision, Joe Biden has called it a shameful decision.

Bide said, “It's just completely contrary to everything America's about. We want to tell the truth. We have always done this as a nation, we want to tell the truth. The idea that a billionaire can buy something and say that by the way from this point on, we are not going to fact check anything.” He further said, “You think it doesn't matter that they let be printed, or millions of people read, things that are simply not true? I mean, I want to know what that's all about. I think it's really shameful.”

(Inputs from ANI, AP)