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Zuckerberg claims Biden officials would 'scream' to enforce Covid 'censorship' on Facebook

Zuckerberg claims Biden officials would 'scream' to enforce Covid 'censorship' on Facebook

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleges Biden officials pressured Meta for Covid content censorship, claiming they would often scream and curse at executives for compliance.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently been in the headlines for moves that are seen as appeasement for the incoming US president Donald Trump. Now, the Meta boss has alleged that Trump's political rival and current US President Joe Biden's administrators would “scream” and “curse” at Meta executives while demanding they remove any negative posts about the coronavirus vaccine.

During an interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” show, Zuckerberg also said he was “optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump.

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Zuckerberg slams Biden administration

Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook alleged that officials from the Biden administration would make calls to his firms and berate his employees.

“Basically, these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg told Rogan.

“It was brutal,” he said.

Watch the interview here:

“It just got to this point where we were like, 'No, we're not gonna, we're not gonna take down things that are true. That's ridiculous',” he claimed.

“The US government should be defending its companies, not be at the tip of the spear attacking its companies,” he added.

Asked by the host if these calls were recorded, Zuckerberg said he didn't think so.

Praising Trump, the tech boss said he thinks the Republican “just wants America to win.”

First such allegations against Biden?

This is not the first time Zuckerberg has made censorship allegations against the Biden administration. Last year, in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he claimed the White House “repeatedly pressured” Facebook to remove “certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire.”

He also accepted that Facebook did at times acquiesce to the demands, but said the certain choices the company made, “with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”

At the time, the White House in a statement claimed that, faced with a deadly pandemic, “this 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”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Moohita Kaur Garg

Moohita Kaur Garg is a senior sub-editor at WION with over four years of experience covering the volatile intersections of geopolitics and global security. From reporting on global...Read More