2024-08-27 21:00:29
Facing right-wing criticism that removing false posts is somehow “censoring Americans,” Facebook-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has thrown in the towel and said his social media company will no longer interfere with misleading posts.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg considers himself something of a mixed martial arts cage fighterBut he’s often been vulnerable to beatings when conservatives argue with him over what can or can’t be posted on his platform.
His latest white flag of surrender seemed unexpected, even though it was a communication to the House Judiciary Committee, which seven months ago grilled him and other tech executives about the dangers faced by children on their platforms.
This may seem unrelated, but CBS News reports that Zuckerberg sent a letter to committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) saying his company Fake Facebook posts about coronavirus should not be censoredand accused the Biden administration of pressuring them to do so.
If you remember, this all echoes what Zuckerberg did during the Trump administration. To avoid unnecessary Republican scrutiny of his company, Zuckerberg went to the White House to meet with Trump in 2019 and even attended a private dinner with Peter Thiel and Trump, three years after he tried to fend off Republican criticism. At the time, Zuckerberg distanced himself from calls for censorship and suggested that Facebook accept political ads from all sides, even if they contain lies, “because that’s what democracy is.”
By June 2020, Zuckerberg was facing a (virtual) walkout by Facebook employees over his weak handling of Trump’s inflammatory posts about the election and falsehoods about the coronavirus.
The House Judiciary Committee posted Zuckerberg’s latest letter on their Facebook page this week, declaring Zuckerberg’s surrender “another major victory for free speech.”
“In 2021, senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, have pressured our team for months to review certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and when we disagreed, they criticized us ‘s team has expressed great frustration,” Zuckerberg wrote to the committee. While it was ultimately up to Meta to decide whether to comply, Zach now complains, “I regret that we weren’t more vocal about it.”
Neither side of this discussion takes into account the fact that thousands of Americans are dying every day, and that probably has more authority than your crazy uncle has to post about ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine or what he listens to on Joe Rogan’s show Any other crazy shit that comes to mind is more important.
In fact, the White House said in a statement Statement to Politico on Monday “When faced with a deadly pandemic, my administration encourages responsible action to protect public health and safety.”
Zuckerberg’s letter generally concedes Hunter Biden Laptop ControversyFacebook previously restricted the spread of the New York Post story that originally reported the story. Although the FBI flagged this story as a possible disinformation campaign, honestly, the facts contained in the notebook Lots of nude photos forcing many news organizations to abandon reporting.
“It has since become clear that the report was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect we should not have downgraded the story,” Zuckerberg said in the letter.
In the end, Republicans seemed to scare Zucker away from making any election-related donations, such as the $400 million he gave to support election infrastructure in the 2020 election.
“I know there are some who believe this effort favors one side,” he said in the letter. “My goal is to remain neutral and not play a role in some way or even appear to be playing a role. So I’m not going to be involved in this. Cycles make similar contributions.
It sounds like the MMA cage fighter just got hit hard and then choked.
Related: Zuckerberg denies secret deal with Jared Kushner to stop censoring Trump’s posts [SFist]
IMAGE: WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 31: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony from the heads of the largest tech companies about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on social media. (Photo by Anna Chanmemaker/Getty Images)
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