During a recent installment of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, described a rather tense exchange between Biden administration officials and Facebook’s team over particular content on the platform. The narrative painted by Zuckerberg involved administration figures haranguing the Facebook squad, even resorting to harsh language. Much to their chagrin, the team strategically decided against content removal, standing their ground on the principle, ‘We aren’t going to eradicate material that upholds truth. It’s preposterous.’
Drawing on a previous letter, Zuckerberg gave a peek into the White House’s consistent exertion of pressure on Facebook to eliminate specific COVID-19 content, especially those with a humorous or satirical slant. Zuckerberg detailed instances where Facebook sometimes bowed to the pressure, subtly hinting at the possibility of standing against such impositions moving forward. More revealingly, he posited that the company, granted the luxury of retrospective evaluation and newly discovered data, would now make divergent decisions.
It’s a manipulation tactic that the White House, unfazed, has characterized as a campaign for public safety in the face of a severe health crisis. According to their public statement, they have tirelessly advocated for calculated measures to safeguard public health. Trying to penetrate the façade, however, one may observe their insistent belief that tech firms and other private entities should critically assess the repercussions of their actions on American citizens while formulating independent decisions regarding their content provisioning.
One content dispute that Zuckerberg laid bare revolved around a meme featuring famed actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The meme highlighted a television screen showcasing a class action lawsuit initiated by individuals vaccinated against Covid. The Biden administration demanded its removal, to which Zuckerberg recalled retorting, ‘We honestly refuse to remove trending humor and satire. We fundamentally disagree with you about removing verifiable truths.’
Interestingly, the said meme had been presented as material evidence by congressional Republicans in an amicus brief during a Supreme Court case in 2023. In the case, plaintiffs included Louisiana, Missouri, and Facebook users who found their posts either depreciated or eradicated, urged for an embargo on government officials liaising with social media companies.
However, the highest court in the land, in an unsurprising 6-3 ruling, dismissed the lawsuit, citing an abundance of evidence that pointed towards social media platforms independently regulating their content, devoid of any government interference.
Against the backdrop of Biden-administration-induced pandemonium, Zuckerberg dropped the bombshell that Meta would terminate its fact-checking program and substitute it with a community-based framework. Furthermore, he indicated the loosening of rules pertaining to political content on his platforms, both Facebook and Instagram. Evidently, these changes seem to proffer a firm retort to the administration’s coercive content strategy.