White House caught strong-arming and screaming for censorship behind closed doors
The Left pretends they’re open and tolerant. Nothing could be further from the truth.
And the White House was caught strong-arming and screaming for censorship behind closed doors.
Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed to podcaster Joe Rogan that members of President Biden’s administration pressured and even berated his employees, demanding they remove certain content during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking candidly, Zuckerberg recounted the intense challenges his company faced in balancing freedom of expression with government demands. Meta’s recent announcement to end its controversial fact-checking practices and lift restrictions on speech marks a significant shift in policy. According to Zuckerberg, the decision reflects the need to “restore free expression” across its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
Government Pressure to Censor
“During the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program,” Zuckerberg explained, “they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true.”
Zuckerberg shared that the administration’s demands included removing posts about vaccine side effects — content that, he noted, was factually accurate. “They basically pushed us and said, you know, that ‘anything saying that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.’ And I was just like, ‘We’re not going to do that, we’re clearly not going to do that, I mean that is kind of inarguably true.’”
Rogan Pushes for Clarity
Joe Rogan pressed Zuckerberg for more details, asking, “Who is ‘they’? Who was telling you to take down things that talk about vaccine side effects?”
“It was people in the Biden administration,” Zuckerberg confirmed. He elaborated further, describing the heated interactions between government officials and his team.
“These people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse,” he revealed. “And it’s like… these documents are, it’s all kind of out there.”
Zuckerberg emphasized his company’s stance: “We basically got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we’re not going to take down things that are true.’ That’s ridiculous.”
Fallout from Government Overreach
The tension escalated when President Biden made public statements criticizing platforms like Facebook. Zuckerberg recalled, “Biden gave some statement at some point, I don’t know if it was a press conference, or to some journalist, where he basically was like, ‘These guys are k*lling people.’”
In the aftermath, Zuckerberg said, “All these different agencies and branches of government basically just started investigating and coming after our company. It was brutal, it was brutal.”
When Rogan asked if there were any repercussions for those who demanded censorship, Zuckerberg quipped, “I mean, they lost the election.”
A Shift in Policy
Meta’s decision to overhaul its content moderation approach signals a pushback against government overreach and a renewed focus on free expression.
Zuckerberg’s candid reflections offer a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes struggles of one of the world’s largest social media companies as it navigates the complex relationship between government demands and individual freedoms.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
