Mark Zuckerberg: White House Demanded Removal of Certain Posts

Mark Zuckerberg, the head and founder of Meta, stated on Joe Rogan's podcast that the White House administration had demanded the removal of certain posts, particularly those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, from the company's platforms, as reported by TASS.

According to Zuckerberg, calls from the Biden administration included demands to remove posts about vaccine side effects and satirical content about the pandemic. He mentioned that White House staff would call and yell at the company's social media administrators, even using foul language.

Zuckerberg said that at some point, they started responding: "No, we will not remove things that are true. That's ridiculous." In response, administration staff insisted that the content be removed, but Meta refused to delete humor, satire, and truthful posts.

Previously, Zuckerberg announced plans to discontinue the fact-checking service and ease content moderation rules. He stated that this was necessary to "return to basics, focus on reducing errors, simplify rules, and restore freedom of expression on platforms." In response, Biden stated that the idea of abandoning fact-checking contradicts U.S. justice.

In 2024, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, indicating that he had experienced pressure from the Biden administration, especially regarding COVID-19-related content and satirical materials.