Mark Zuckerberg says Biden officials will ‘scream’ and ‘curse’ as they seek to remove Facebook content
In an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg painted a picture of Biden administration officials berating Facebook employees when they asked for certain content to be removed from the social media platform.
“Basically, these people in the Biden administration will call our team and scream and curse at them,” Zuckerberg told podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan. “When it gets to this point, we just It’s ridiculous to think, ‘No, we’re not going to, we’re not going to delete the real thing.'”
The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on Zuckerberg’s remarks.
Facebook’s co-founder said it wasn’t the first time government officials had pressured the company to remove posts.
In a letter last year to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said the White House had “repeatedly pressured Facebook” to remove “certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.” .
Zuckerberg said Meta-owned Facebook has sometimes acquiesced, while suggesting it would make different decisions in the future. He said the company “made some choices, but given the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t be making those choices today.”
The White House responded in a statement at the time: “In the face of a deadly pandemic, my administration encourages responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position is clear and consistent: We believe technology companies and other private actors should Consider the impact of their actions on the American people while making independent choices about the information they provide.
Podcaster Joe Rogan.
On Rogan’s show, Zuckerberg said the government had asked Facebook to remove a meme from its platform that showed actor Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV screen to promote criticism of having had the coronavirus vaccine. Vaccine people file class action lawsuit.
“They said, ‘No, you have to take it down,'” Zuckerberg said, adding, “We said, ‘No, we’re not going to, we’re not going to take down the humor and satire. We’re not going to destroy it. Those real things.
The meme was included as evidence in an amicus brief filed by congressional Republicans in a 2023 case before the Supreme Court.
In the case, the plaintiffs, which include the states of Louisiana, Missouri and several Facebook users whose posts were removed or demoted, seek to ban government officials from communicating with the social media company.
The Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit in a 6-3 decision, in part because of overwhelming evidence that the platforms were moderating content without government intervention.
“In fact, before the government defendants intervened, the platforms acted independently to strengthen their pre-existing content moderation policies,” Judge Amy Coney Barrett wrote in her opinion.
Zuckerberg’s comments on Rogan’s podcast came just days after he announced that Meta would be ending its fact-checking program and replacing it with a community-driven structure similar to the community annotation system on X. Facebook and Instagram – will relax rules related to political content.
Zuckerberg is one of several tech tycoons, reportedly including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose company has pledged $1 million to President-elect Trump’s inaugural committee.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com
