Sightful Invest
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Politics
  • Stock
Top Posts
Trump dishes on Milley clash over leaving military...
TikToker knocks Harris’ ‘weird’ take on never released...
‘Who wouldn’t want it?’: Netanyahu open to receiving...
Supreme Court lets Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ federal job...
Biden’s strange use of teleprompter in donor’s home...
Tariff case pits Cato Institute against Trump over...
GREGG JARRETT: CIA report makes it clear Trump...
State Department investigating Rubio AI impersonator who contacted...
DOJ lands legal victory as federal judge allows...
Senate Republican moves to give US an edge...
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Politics
  • Stock

Sightful Invest

Politics

Zuckerberg, expressing regrets, admits bowing to Biden administration pressure to remove content

by admin August 28, 2024
August 28, 2024
Zuckerberg, expressing regrets, admits bowing to Biden administration pressure to remove content

Mark Zuckerberg just had to eat several large helpings of crow.

And some minor political flap wasn’t on the menu. 

As the Wall Street Journal first reported, the CEO of Facebook and Meta expressed regret on such weighty matters as government-induced censorship and free speech.

It’s good for Zuck to accept some degree of responsibility, but it’s kinda too late. By about three years.

The admissions came in a letter to Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary chairman, and is a major win for the Republicans. The onetime Harvard whiz kid usually digs in defensively, with vague promises of future reform.

After the pandemic hit, Zuckerberg wrote, senior Biden administration and White House officials had ‘repeatedly pressured our 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.’

That is an important distinction. The Biden pressure tactics didn’t always work. Facebook could, and sometimes did, say no. But much of the time, the giant social media site just caved.

And Facebook had a publicly proclaimed agenda: prodding millions of people to take Covid vaccines.

Zuckerberg said the administration pressure ‘was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.’ His company ‘made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today…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.’

I don’t know: How confident are you that Facebook would publicly push back on some hot-button issue today?

A Biden White House spokesman, in lawyerly language that didn’t quite respond to Zuck’s accusations, said it had ‘encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety…Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.’

Two years ago, a Free Press reporter who examined the ‘Twitter Files’ found that both the Trump and the Biden administrations ‘directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.’

One document mentioned the White House chief technology officer, who ‘led the Trump administration’s calls for help from the tech companies to combat misinformation.’

The piece also said that Facebook, Google and Microsoft joined in ‘weekly’ calls with the Trump officials to talk about ‘general trends’ at the companies. Sounds euphemistic.

But Trump was also a victim. Just four hours after a 2020 campaign video was posted and drew a half million views, Facebook took it down, saying it violated the social network’s policy against Covid misinformation. 

The Trump camp had posted a clip from a Fox interview in which the president said children were ‘virtually immune’ from the coronavirus. Most medical experts disagreed at the time.

‘They’ve got much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this,’ Trump said. ‘They don’t have a problem. They just don’t have a problem.’

A White House spokeswoman at the time called the move ‘another display of Silicon Valley’s flagrant bias against this president, where the rules are only enforced in one direction.’

Zuckerberg, for his part, also made news on the Hunter Biden laptop.

He told Jordan that Meta ‘shouldn’t have demoted’ a New York Post story about the laptop shortly before the 2020 election. 

Let me stop right there. Demoted is tech jargon for suppressing a story, blatantly burying it so that few if any users see it. This happened after Twitter, as you’ll recall, totally blocked the Post story.

Trump allies got access to the laptop from the Delaware computer shop owner, at a time when Biden was the Democratic nominee. Dozens of former intelligence officials signed a letter dismissing the laptop story as fake, and in a debate with Trump, Biden said the release of the emails had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’

Zuckerberg writes: ‘It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.’

Right. And it took the New York Times and Washington Post another year and a half to ‘authenticate’ the laptop’s contents.

In the 2020 election, Zuck funded nonprofits to set up Covid-era voting booths and equipment sorting mail-in ballots, which Republicans, calling it ‘Zuckerbucks,’ argued with some justification that this unfairly benefited Democratic areas. Zuckerberg now says he won’t repeat the effort this time.

 

Trump said in a posting last month: ‘All I can say is that if I’m elected president, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!’

In his Mar-a-Lago interview with me, Trump made his distaste for Facebook quite clear, in fact using it to justify dropping his opposition to banning TikTok, saying that would only help Zuckerberg’s company.

Now some may dismiss all this as old news, given that the events date to the pandemic and the last election. But it raises fundamental questions that continue to reverberate today, when Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump has prompted many liberals to leave or largely abandon X and join Threads, the Zuckerberg copycat site.

Politicians and special interests routinely lobby the federal government. But when they use their considerable clout to pressure tech giants – secretly, behind closed doors, shielded from the public – it is deeply troubling.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

previous post
Far left wants to crush PayPal, Zelle and you can take that to the bank
next post
Ex-Obama official predicts Harris will seek new Iran nuclear deal: ‘Has to be the goal’

You may also like

Blue state AGs accuse Vance of spreading ‘dangerous...

February 15, 2025

Trump says Taylor Swift endorsing Harris was ‘just...

September 11, 2024

Trump’s Justice Department order to drop charges against...

February 14, 2025

Morning Glory: Change comes to the White House...

February 27, 2025

House Democrat leaves congressional DOGE caucus, saying Musk...

February 7, 2025

Biden White House to send $1.25 billion in...

December 28, 2024

Trump inner circle shares McDonald’s meal as Donald...

November 18, 2024

Freedom Caucus draws first battle lines in election...

August 12, 2024

Look past the tributes, Joe Biden has been...

August 20, 2024

FDA chief counsel who defended abortion pill under...

March 13, 2025

Recent Posts

  • Trump dishes on Milley clash over leaving military equipment in Afghanistan: ‘I knew he was an idiot’
  • TikToker knocks Harris’ ‘weird’ take on never released interview: ‘Not good’
  • ‘Who wouldn’t want it?’: Netanyahu open to receiving stealth bombers, bunker-busters from US
  • Supreme Court lets Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ federal job cuts proceed while legal fight continues
  • Biden’s strange use of teleprompter in donor’s home infuriated supporters, dashed expectations

    Become a VIP member by signing up for our newsletter. Enjoy exclusive content, early access to sales, and special offers just for you! As a VIP, you'll receive personalized updates, loyalty rewards, and invitations to private events. Elevate your experience and join our exclusive community today!


    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Categories

    • Business (818)
    • Investing (2,487)
    • Politics (3,085)
    • Stock (4)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: sightfulinvest.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2024 Sightful Invest. All Rights Reserved.