Zuckerberg claims White House pressured Meta over COVID-19 content

The letter, which was addressed to House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), was posted to the committee's Facebook page and its account on X.

In the letter, Zuckerberg claims that 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."

Zuckerberg said that it was ultimately Meta's decision to remove any content, but added that he believes the alleged "government pressure was wrong" and said he regrets "that we were not more outspoken about it."

Zuckerberg said Meta made some choices that, "[w]ith the benefit of hindsight and new information," it wouldn't make again.

"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 also said he doesn't plan on making any contributions to support electoral infrastructure like he did in 2020, when his philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donated $400 million to help government offices conduct the election during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg said his donations "were designed to be non-partisan."

"Still, despite the analyses I've seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefitted one party over the other," 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."

In 2021, the White House criticized social media companies for allowing misinformation related to COVID-19 to spread on their platforms.

In August of that year, Meta said it removed more than 20 million posts related to COVID-19 that violated its content rules across both Facebook and Instagram.

In response, the White House said in a statement that, "[w]hen 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," the White House added. (Kharpal, CNBC, 8/27; Associated Press, 8/27; Rajan/Bose, Reuters, 8/27; Gerken, BBC, 8/27; Saric, Axios, 8/27)

Develop a strong COVID-19 vaccine communication strategy that shares information, addresses patient concerns, and encourages uptake.