Confession from Mark Zuckerberg during the pandemic: White House exerted pressure.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made important statements on content moderation and election support in a letter he sent to Jim Jordan, Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee. Zuckerberg stated that Meta has been subjected to censorship of COVID-19 content under government pressure, which has caused a serious debate within the company.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PRESSURE

Zuckerberg stated that senior officials from the Biden Administration exerted intense pressure on Meta to censor COVID-19 content in 2021. He stated that these pressures, including the White House, lasted for months and created significant pressure to remove certain content. However, Meta stated that these decisions were made entirely at their own discretion and expressed regret for some mistakes made during this process. Zuckerberg said, "Despite these pressures, we should not compromise our content standards and we will not back down when faced with a similar situation in the future."

RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION ALLEGATIONS

Zuckerberg revealed that in another incident related to the 2020 elections, the FBI warned Meta about a possible Russian disinformation operation regarding the Biden family and Burisma. He said that as a result of these warnings, they temporarily restricted access to the New York Post's article containing allegations of corruption against Joe Biden's family. However, he stated that this policy was changed after it was understood that this news was not Russian disinformation, and they no longer restrict content while waiting for verification.

ELECTION SUPPORT AND NEUTRALITY

Zuckerberg also mentioned that his donations to support the election infrastructure during the last presidential election cycle were on the agenda. He emphasized that these donations were made to enable people to vote safely during the pandemic and were distributed equally to urban, rural, and suburban areas in a neutral manner. However, he stated that allegations arose that these supports favored one side by some groups, and therefore, he does not plan to make a similar contribution in the upcoming election cycle.

Zuckerberg stated that Meta will continue to maintain an independent and neutral stance on content moderation. He also stated that the company will take more cautious steps regarding involvement in election processes. Zuckerberg's statements provide important clues about how Meta will deal with government pressure and disinformation.