Author: Martin Young, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Baishui, Golden Finance

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook was "pressured" by the Biden administration to censor COVID-related content during the pandemic and expressed regret for giving in to those demands.

On August 26, the tech billionaire sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan expressing concerns about content moderation on social media platforms amid an ongoing investigation.

He claimed that senior Biden administration officials "repeatedly pressured" the company in 2021 to censor certain coronavirus-related information, "including humor and satire."

He said that ultimately what to review was the Meta team’s decision, but that they made some choices that they would not make again today “with the benefit of hindsight and new information.”

“I think the pressure from the government is misplaced and I regret that we haven’t been more vocal about it.”

"I feel very strongly that we should not lower our content standards because of pressure from any government," he said.

Excerpt from Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Jim Jordan. Source: House Judiciary Committee

In the same letter, the Meta CEO also said he regretted downgrading a story involving Russian disinformation and Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 while it waited for fact-checkers.

He said the platform came under scrutiny for censorship at the time and that policies have since changed to prevent it from happening again.

The letter drew a strong response from decentralization and free speech advocates on X.

Gabor Gubacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, shared the letter in a post on X, expressing his pleasure that Zuckerberg had gone public with the matter, adding:

“Every official who illegally pressures media companies to censor their users should be named, investigated, and tried in court.”

"People have had enough. Governments do not control speech. The Earth is not a prison and they are not our jailers," he added.

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah asked: "Who else wants Mark Zuckerberg to regret this before the damage is done — not years later?"

Charlie Kirk, founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, told his 3.3 million X followers that “we should support our American industry leaders in getting these things done,” before adding:

“Given what has happened, distrust and skepticism are appropriate, but I’m glad to see Zuckerberg emerge as a defender of free speech.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reiterated that his social media platform X is "truly designed to support all viewpoints within the laws of all countries".

He added that Zuckerberg's confession was "a step in the right direction."

Source: Musk

In April, reports emerged that Wikipedia was allegedly combating false information about the COVID-19 pandemic, with critics calling it censorship.