Mark Zuckerberg stated in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan that Biden officials called Meta executives to “scream” and “curse” at them, telling them to take down critical Facebook posts on the coronavirus vaccine. Zuckerberg stated in his appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” that “it was brutal.” “The United States government ought to be protecting its businesses, not leading the charge against them,” he said.
Zuckerberg has made accusations against the Biden administration before. He said that the administration “pressured” Meta to “censor” Covid-19 content in a letter sent back in August to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee. In the end, he said, he regretted some of the choices he took in response to their requests.
According to Zuckerberg, White House employees insisted on removing the content they deemed offensive, including a meme featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. The meme claims that years later, people may need to get compensation for ill effects from the COVID-19 vaccine. The CEO of Meta referred to it as “harmless humour” and labeled it a political joke.
The White House staff “push hard” to remove critical posts about the vaccine, he added, adding that Zuckerberg himself is “pro-vaccine.”
Additionally, Zuckerberg revealed that Biden’s team used to frequently apply pressure to have true information taken down, including articles about dangerous vaccination side effects like myocarditis. “The White House pushed really hard to remove the things that were honestly true,” he added. Zuckerberg claimed that despite all of this pressure, Meta refrained from suppressing accurate content, calling such demands “ridiculous.”
A turning point came when President Biden openly criticised social media platforms and pointed out that misinformation is killing people. According to Zuckerburg, this led to a careful examination and in-depth research of Meta, which he described as “brutal.”
