WASHINGTON – A mix of social media, politics and censorship is coming into light following a confession from Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He admits the Biden administration pressured his platforms to censor content related to COVID-19. In a letter to House lawmakers, Zuckerberg also addressed the handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
In his bombshell admission to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg added that he regrets caving to the demands of the Biden White House to censor COVID content on Facebook and Instagram.
The META CEO wrote, "I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken."
"I feel strongly we should not compromise our content standards and we're ready to push back if something like this happens again," Zuckerberg added.
Derrick Green, Chairman of Cedarville University's Communication Department, tells CBN News it's concerning when a presidential administration tries to influence content moderation policies.
"What it does is really brings to light that there's a lot of pressure on how social media presents its content, what they allow to be present on their platforms," he said of Zuckerberg's letter. "That pressure is coming from all types of people and in this case it's coming from the highest level of the government."
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On Capitol Hill, members of the House Judiciary Committee celebrated the letter with Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) calling it a "big win for free speech."
The letter also referenced the Hunter Biden laptop story. Zuckerberg wrote that the company "shouldn't have demoted" content about the corruption allegations ahead of the 2020 election.
He noted that Facebook has since changed its "policies and processes to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The White House responded with this statement: "Our position has been clear: we believe tech companies should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices."
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley writes about these issues in his new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.
One growing controversy is disinformation which Turley addressed in an interview with CBN's Gary Lane.
"Well, disinformation is very much part of the effort to censor, and it's ramping up as we speak," said Turley. "You know, the interesting thing about the book is it talks about how the Adams administration engaged in, as you know, the actual arrests and prosecution of opponents of John Adams. The book also says that Joe Biden is arguably the most anti-free speech president since John Adams."
And he fears it could continue under a Harris administration.
"Free speech is on the ballot," he said. "I don't think democracy is, but free speech is."
Turley also pointed out that Zuckerberg fought relentlessly to withhold documents on censorship. His letter came only after the House Judiciary Committee forced him to release those documents.
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