Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once again admitted that the company was “pressured” to censor the New York Post’s bombshell story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which detailed several emails concerning influence peddling operations centered on his father, then-candidate Joe Biden. The story was censored on Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter and other outlets. He further admitted that the company censored Americans at the behest of the Biden-Harris Administration.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured out 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 wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Zuckerberg went on to state that he believes “the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
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The Meta CEO then claimed that the company would not make the same decisions in the present day if again pressured by government officials. “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 then, for the second time, confirmed that the company was pressured to censor the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story. Zuckerberg previously told podcast host Joe Rogan that intelligence officials told Meta that the story contained “hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign,” a thoroughly debunked lie that was advanced by current Biden Administration officials.
“In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election,” Zuckerberg wrote. Hunter Biden served on the board of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma despite lacking qualifications. His former business partner, Devon Archer, has testified that Hunter’s inclusion on the board was aimed at selling the “Biden Family brand.”
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According to Zuckerberg, Meta made the decision to censor the story based on the “warning” they had received from the FBI. “It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” he wrote, adding that the company has since changed its policies to prevent a repeat of the incident.
The “Russian disinformation” narrative, which has been thoroughly debunked, potentially played a massive role in swaying the election for President Biden, polling has consistently found. One poll found that 71 percent of respondents might have changed their views on President Biden if the story was reported accurately.
