House Republicans are taking a victory lap after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter Monday that senior Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” the social media company to take down content related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
GOP lawmakers said Tuesday that Zuckerberg’s letter lends credence to the allegations of censorship that they have long levied against social media companies.
“The @HouseGOP has long known the Harris-Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in a post Tuesday on social platform X.
“Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to @JudiciaryGOP leaves no room for doubt: this was an intentional assault on our First Amendment rights,” Emmer added. “This abuse of power must end now.”
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Zuckerberg said he regrets not being more outspoken about the “government pressure” on Meta to take down content related to COVID-19, including humor and satire.
“Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction,” he wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“We’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” the Meto CEO added.
Although Zuckerberg did not provide details about the posts that Meta was pushed to take down or their political leanings, several Republican lawmakers understood this to refer to conservative content.
“Mark Zuckerberg finally admits what everyone already knew —that Facebook throttles conservative content on their platforms,” Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) wrote on X. “This is a great win for free speech, conservatives must continue to put pressure on government-media censorship.”
“It’s time to finally hold Big Tech accountable for their blatant censorship of conservatives,” Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) also said on X.
The White House defended its actions during the pandemic, noting that the Biden administration “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,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
House Republicans also claimed that Zuckerberg’s letter showed that Meta helped suppress a New York Post story about corruption allegations against President Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
In Monday’s letter, Zuckerberg said the FBI warned Meta in 2020 — during the Trump administration — about a potential Russian disinformation operation related to Biden’s family and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company linked to the president’s son Hunter Biden.
When the New York Post story broke featuring emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop, Meta demoted the story while waiting for fact-checkers to review it.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg wrote.
He also noted that Meta has since changed its policies and processes, including no longer demoting content while waiting for fact-checkers.
“Social media companies like Meta have been hijacked by the Biden-Harris admin to censor conservative voices and attempt to cover up the corruption of the Biden Crime Family,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) wrote on X.
“They should NEVER be able to suppress our Constitutional rights! We must hold them accountable,” he added.
However, Zuckerberg’s letter does not mention any discussions with the Biden administration about the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The purported contents in the Hunter Biden laptop hard drive that was shared with multiple news outlets were not confirmed by him or his lawyers. Portions of it were later confirmed by other sources and authenticated by some news outlets.
Republicans spent years combing through the contents of the laptop in search of fuel for scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, including with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was a factor in the first impeachment of former President Trump.
GOP probes into Hunter Biden’s business dealings culminated in an impeachment inquiry report released earlier this month that argued President Biden engaged in impeachable conduct.
The report relied on circumstantial evidence to argue it was “inconceivable” that the then-vice president did not know how his family was using his name to gain influence without directly connecting him to any foreign money.