During a candid interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed that officials from President Joe Biden’s administration exerted pressure on Meta to censor accurate posts regarding COVID-19 vaccines, including discussions on vaccine side effects. Zuckerberg revealed that Biden aides insistently demanded the deletion of posts, even when the content was factual, occasionally resorting to shouting and using profanity towards Meta employees.
BREAKING: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor posts on vaccine side effects. pic.twitter.com/tSYF1nnMRN
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Zuckerberg stressed that Meta resisted these demands and kept factual content up, including memes and humorous posts that criticized the vaccine narrative. While he acknowledged the vaccines’ overall benefits, he expressed regret over censoring accurate information during the pandemic.
Meta is now working on changing its content moderation approach to depoliticize it, following widespread criticism of how it handled political topics, misinformation, and hate speech.