Whoops! Zuckerberg regrets censorship of Covid content and Hunter Biden laptop story

Kurt Mahlburg
August 29, 2024 19 Reactions

Who goes to jail when the United States government violates the First Amendment?

We may never know the answer to this question.

As of Monday, however, Americans can be more certain that ever the Biden-Harris administration indeed colluded to silence the truth about some of 2020’s most consequential news stories.

The latest confirmation came via an unusually frank letter from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the House Judiciary Committee in response to its investigation into social media content moderation.

“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, 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,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,” he continued.

Regret

Targeted by Meta during the COVID era were posts questioning the lethality of the virus, the effectiveness of masks and lockdowns, the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines, and the morality of imposing vaccine mandates. At the time, dissenting posts were unblinkingly dismissed as “misinformation”.

In reflection, the tech titan concedes that there was fault on both sides of the equation.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”

“We’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” he affirmed.

Along with his mention of COVID-19 controversies, in his letter, Zuckerberg made reference to the infamous Hunter Biden laptop saga:

In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead-up to the 2020 election. That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.

Here, Zuckerberg went much further than his previous admission during a Joe Rogan podcast in 2022, when he lamented “it sucks” that Meta was swayed by FBI claims about Hunter Biden’s laptop that turned out to be vacuous.

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With Zuckerberg’s admission now splashed across the global news, it’s worth recapping some of the saucy facts about the Hunter Biden laptop story in particular.

First, looking beyond the October surprise hype, what the New York Post revealed in its 2020 reports was staggering. On that laptop was verified proof the son of then presidential hopeful Joe Biden leveraged his political access to the White House to secure lucrative overseas business deals and secretly funnel the money back to his father.

What’s more, the FBI verified Hunter Biden’s laptop as authentic as early as November 2019, according to an IRS whistleblower who testified on Capitol Hill. If so, the Bureau knowingly misled Meta when it suggested the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Additionally, Joe Biden himself repeated the same falsehood during a presidential debate with Donald Trump in 2020, claiming his son’s laptop was a fabrication by Russian agents.

Finally, at least two polls suggest Donald Trump would have won a second term in the White House if Americans had access to the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop before they cast their votes.

Self-preservation?

The public’s response to Mark Zuckerberg’s letter has been mixed.

Some have hailed him as a hero for finally standing up to the Biden-Harris Administration and the intelligence industrial complex.

Others highlight that he has only done so after being the subject of lengthy congressional investigations — and that real courage would have come sooner and unprompted.

Some see in Zuckerberg a possible change of heart towards the Donald, in line with a surge of Trump support emanating from Silicon Valley. Indeed, the Meta CEO did recently tell a Bloomberg reporter that “seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Others have suggested that Zuckerberg, with unique access to the political views of millions of Americans, might be anticipating the outcome of the November election and be getting ahead of possible retribution if Trump were to retake power.

Whatever the case, his words are a breath of fresh air for a sorry saga in American history. May they not be the last.

What do you think of these developments? Leave your comments below.

Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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  • Steven Meyer
    commented 2024-09-01 15:56:10 +1000
    Well, speaking of presidential relatives misbehaving, let’s have a look at Jared Kushner.

    In 2018 the Trump Administration put pressure on Qatar over their relationship with Iran. Then a Canadian investment company with links to Qatar took out a 99 year lease on 666 5th Avenue. The deal supposedly saved the Kushner property empire from bankruptcy.

    Suddenly the pressure on Qatar vanished.

    Then we have the Saudi investment in Kushner’s Affinity fund. You can read about it here:

    Wyden Probes ‘Deeply Concerning’ Kushner Firm Payments From Gulf Monarchies
    https://www.commondreams.org/news/kushner-deals

    Higher fees for lower returns?

    The Republicans killed a House investigation of Jared’s dealings with the Saudis but now one was got up in the Senate.

    And then we have the little matter of donations to the Republican Party being used to pay Trump’s legal fees.

    Trump campaign goes broke as Republican funds used to pay off legal bills
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVUxJDOIvQ

    of course, in Trump’s case we don’t have to look at relatives for chicanery. Remember, he bilked poor and vulnerable people out of their life’s saving with his Trump “University” scam.

    As for the Hunter Biden case, it’s not quite as clear cut as Mahlburg suggests.

    Did the Biden-Harris Administration pressure Facebook?

    So far as I can see Zuckerberg has not named names or given dates and details of meetings. Nor has he explained what sanctions would be imposed if he failed to comply.

    I am somewhat suspicious of billionaires cosying up to a presidential candidate who promises them tax cuts worth billions.

    And then there’s the small matter of what happened to Trump’s 2020 campaign finances:

    From NY Times:

    [quote]
    During the 2020 election, almost $516 million of the over $780 million spent by the Trump campaign was directed to American Made Media Consultants, a Delaware-based private company created in 2018 that masked the identities of who ultimately received donor dollars, according to a complaint filed with the F.E.C. by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. How A.M.M.C. spent the money was a mystery even to Mr. Trump’s campaign team, according to news reports shortly after the election.
    [end quote]

    So it goes.

    Corruption in US Politics has reached monumental proportions and I doubt there’s much to choose between the two main parties. The US Supreme "Court’ – i.e. Coterie of Political Thugs in Robes – has made the definition of bribery so narrow that prosecutions are virtually impossible.
  • Roger Symes
    commented 2024-08-31 19:55:21 +1000
    Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is an ode to the “individualistic individuals” that Ann Farmer refers to in her biographical snippet here (https://www.mercatornet.com/ann_farmer_pro_life_campaigner_poet_cartoonist_author:

    “For what is a man, what has he got?
    If not himself, then he has naught
    To say the things he truly feels
    And not the words of one who kneels”
  • Jürgen Siemer
    commented 2024-08-31 16:25:37 +1000
    Meta, Facebook, Google, YouTube, CNN, MSNBC…

    Full of manipulation and lies.

    They are NOT victims.

    Check out who controls them. Those are the ones who want to control the American people.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-08-31 05:02:10 +1000
    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/trump-wh-asked-twitter-to-take-down-chrissy-teigen-burn.html

    I mean it’s in congressional record. But yes, continue your…what did you call it? “Tu quotient” attack on rolling stone. Congressional record has more details, and some phrases that I can’t repeat in polite company.

    McConnell took that appointment away from Obama and then went back on the rule he invented in 2020 when it was politically expedient to enshrine a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court for a while…or one might say pack the court with conservatives. And it’s not that McConnell took a gamble, conservatives at the time talked about keeping the appointment open for 4 years.
    (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/clinton-wins-gop-say-no-9-supreme-court). So please spare me your moralizing here.

    Honestly the court should be expanded, at least to 13 total (or is it 11 circuits for appeals)?
  • mrscracker
    I remember that UVA incident.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-31 02:36:09 +1000
    Of course, I meant UVA fraternity members. I had my woke lies mixed up.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-31 02:33:22 +1000
    And BTW Anon, Rolling Stone? Really? Ask a few Duke lacrosse players how reliable Rolling Stone is.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-31 02:21:26 +1000
    Mercatornet, you guys really need an editing feature.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-31 02:17:36 +1000
    Yes, Anon, court-packing schemes. McConnel did not change the number of judges on SCOTUS, and if you remember, Clinton was widely viewed as a shoe-in in 2016. McConnel took a gamble, and it paid off. In addition, everything he did was according to the rules of the Senate.

    Now, you might argue that packing the court would also be within the rules. You would be right. The Constitution does not specify the number of judges on the court. However, just because something is not specifically prohibited by the Constitution does not mean it is not a terrible idea.

    Surely you realize that if the Dems pack the court, the Republicans will simply re-pack it when they gain power. That would not only destroy the independence of the court, but you would have the legal chaos of a court expanded every few years and overturning the decisions of the previous expansion.

    The court “reforms” the Dems are proposing are a dead letter since they would require amending the Constitution. That proposal is just red meat for their base. Court-packing, though, is a real possibilty. It remains to be seen whether that to is base bait or if the Dems really are that short sighted.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-08-30 06:19:59 +1000
    And while censorship is wrong, let us not pretend that it was just the Biden administration that did it. Trump’s administration did it, too – extensively.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-trump-twitter-files-collusion-biden-censorship-1234675969/

    Both are wrong.
  • mrscracker
    Well good for Mark Zuckerberg I was glad to read about this. Thank you for sharing it Mr. Kurt.
    I thought Pres. Trump’s reaction after being shot was pretty amazing also. You don’t have to support his candidacy to agree with that. I reminded me of Teddy Roosevelt after he’d been shot.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-08-30 06:01:34 +1000
    lol court packing schemes? After McConnell invented a rule out of the ether in 2016 and then went back on 2020? Sure, Jan.

    Also – I bring it up because Kurt seems to imply that the FBIs actions impacted the 2020 election. I feel it’s worth noting that who was responsible for that FBI, given Kurt’s omission, since he seems so fond of attacking Biden.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-30 05:19:27 +1000
    I would add that the actions of both administration’s are the reason we have an independent judiciary, which the Democrats are proposing to undermine with their “reforms” and court-packing scheme.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-30 05:13:12 +1000
    Fat fingers + phone. Of course I mean tu quoque and in the least.
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-30 05:11:46 +1000
    Coerce is not just a strong word. It’s the wrong word. As for 2019, does the term “to quoque” mean anything to you? If the Trump administration colluded with Zuckerberg to censor speech, that was wrong. It does not on the least excuse the Biden administration’s more extensive collusion.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-08-30 01:13:38 +1000
    Coerce might be a strong wording. But the GOP investigations led by Jim Jordan certainly added pressure to Mark.

    Also – who was president in 2019 when the FBI interacted with meta? And who appointed that director of the FBI?
  • Friend
    commented 2024-08-30 00:44:43 +1000
    Anon Emouse, how and when did the GOP “use the power of government to coerce statements from Mark”? He <i> may</i> have written the letter in anticipation of Trump’s election (although that is pure speculation) but precisely what evidence do you have that Trump, his campaign, or Congressional Republicans “coerced” the letter? I think you are letting your ideology run away with you.
  • Anon Emouse
    commented 2024-08-29 23:42:10 +1000
    It’s ironic, the GOP is using the power of the government to coerce statements from Mark…just like they accused the Dems of doing.

    But some points: Who was president in 2019 Kurt? And who was director of the FBI? Who appointed that director of the FBI?
  • Kurt Mahlburg
    published this page in The Latest 2024-08-29 21:35:12 +1000

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