Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told Joe Rogan in a podcast that the Biden administration pressured his company to remove posts about side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Zuckerberg said he thinks the vaccines are “more positive than negative” but believes the administration is pushing to censor posts that argue against vaccination.
Zuckerberg’s comments come after Meta announced it would stop relying on third-party fact-checking and instead let users add their own commentary on truthfulness. The move has drawn comparisons with Elon Musk’s company X, which is also taking a more community-driven approach to content moderation.
The remarks are the latest in a series of announcements from Meta that appear aimed at appeasing President-elect Donald Trump. Last week, the company replaced its president of global affairs with Joel Kaplan, a former Republican staffer. Meta had previously contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and has expressed criticism about the Biden administration’s handling of COVID-19-related content.
In August, Zuckerberg wrote to the House Judiciary Committee saying the administration “pressured” him to censor COVID-19 content, adding that he regretted some of the decisions made in response. He didn’t specify who made the requests from the White House but said Meta wouldn’t remove content that is “inarguably true”.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/10/mark-zuckerberg-says-biden-pushed-meta-to-remove-posts-on-vaccines.html