Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Jim Jordan gave Republicans just enough to claim a political win, without getting Meta in more trouble amid its FTC antitrust suit
Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Chairman Jim Jordan and the House … Nick Heer / Pixel Envy : Mark Zuckerberg Ingratiates Himself With U.S. Republican Politicians Casey Newton / Platformer : Zuckerberg draws a new line on government pressure Oliver Darcy / Status : Zucker-Bucks Under Pressure Scott Barkley / Baptist Press : Zuckerberg letter serves as important reminder of free speech, freedom of religion The Hill : House Republicans take victory lap over Mark Zuckerberg letter Brendan Bordelon / Politico : Zuckerberg's new Washington game Adam Clark Estes / Vox : Mark Zuckerberg's letter about Facebook censorship is not what it seems Jennifer Graham / Deseret News : The confessions of Mark Zuckerberg Matt Taibbi / Racket News : Zuckerberg Defies the Borg Philip Hamburger / Wall Street Journal : The ‘Tell’ in Zuckerberg's Letter to Congress Sherin Shibu / Entrepreneur : ‘I Believe the Government Pressure Was Wrong:’ Mark Zuckerberg Explains Why Facebook Censored Certain Content Robby Soave / Reason : Mark Zuckerberg Blames Biden for ‘Government Pressure’ To Censor Facebook M.G. Siegler / Spyglass : Mark Zuckerberg's Goal is to Be Neutral in Not Being Neutral Danielle Berjikian / Louder With Crowder : Watch: MAGA Wins as Mark Zuckerberg Comes Clean On Censoring Americans Brandon Morse / RedState : What Zuckerberg's Admission to Jim Jordan On Meta's Censorship Really Means... For Democrats Natalie Korach / The Wrap : Mark Zuckerberg Regrets Allowing White House to Push COVID-19 Censorship in 2021: ‘Government Pressure Was Wrong’ Tom Howell Jr / Washington Times : Mark Zuckerberg to Congress: COVID-19, Hunter Biden laptop suppression was wrong Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information : Mark Zuckerberg Says Government Pressure Over Covid Posts was ‘Wrong’ Joseph Mackinnon / Blaze Media : Mark Zuckerberg ‘comes clean’ in damning letter about Facebook's election interference and pandemic censorship James Lynch / National Review : Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Wrong to Suppress Hunter Laptop Story, Scolds White House for Covid Censorship Marita Vlachou / AOL : Mark Zuckerberg says Biden officials were ‘wrong’ to pressure Meta to ‘censor’ Covid posts Colin McCullogh / abc7NY : Mark Zuckerberg says Meta was ‘pressured’ by Biden administration to censor Covid-related content Leigh Mc Gowran / Silicon Republic : Zuckerberg says US pressured Meta to censor Covid-19 content WBUR : Zuckerberg accuses White House of pressuring Facebook to ‘censor’ some COVID posts AJ McDougall / The Daily Beast : Zuckerberg Says Meta Was ‘Pressured’ by Biden to Censor COVID Content Charlie Nash / Mediaite : Mark Zuckerberg Says Biden Admin ‘Repeatedly Pressured’ Facebook To ‘Censor’ Content, ‘Including Humor and Satire’ Benzinga : Mark Zuckerberg Tells Jim Jordan He Isn't Donating For Election Infrastructure In 2024: ‘My Goal Is To Be Neutral And Not Play A Role One Way Or Another’ Elizabeth Weibel / Breitbart : Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Killed Hunter Biden Laptop Story After FBI ‘Warned’ of ‘Russian Disinformation’ Greg Wehner / Fox Business : Meta CEO admits Biden-Harris admin pressured company to censor Americans Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal : In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets Meta wasn't more outspoken about Biden administration pressure to restrict some COVID-19 content Threads: Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia : Let's talk about the Zuckerberg letter. This is nothing more than a cynical political ploy at self preservation. Jim Jordan and the right have been alleging censorship for years. Why does Zuck release this letter now, three months before the election? To signal to Congressional republicans that he's not against them. … Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : Mark Zuckerberg knows his audience. In 2020, he accepted credit from people who praised Facebook's aggressive Covid-19 content moderation. E.g. https://www.nytimes.com/... In 2024, he spreads blame when criticized for Facebook's aggressive Covid-19 content moderation. See @willoremus https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Karl Bode / @kbode : journalists covering this should make it very clear the GOP is operating purely in bad faith, bullying tech giants (in Zuck's case happily) away from moderating racist right wing propaganda, a cornerstone of party power and recruitment 95% of these articles don't make this clear AT ALL David Heath / @david.heath.writer : The irony of Mark Zuckerberg saying Facebook was wrong to momentarily suppress an inaccurate New York Post article reliant on Hunter Biden's laptop is that Meta is now suppressing all political news. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : I have to say that Mark is the most modulating of all the tech CEOs, all in self interest. Brandon Silverman / @silvermanbrandon : While also completely and cowardly validating a process that was run with an incredibe amount of bad faith, overtly political and really hurtful to a lot of people. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Vintage Mark: “With that, the right's victory was complete. An admission that the Biden administration had been overzealous — even as he said Facebook made the call. Identifying the FBI as the trigger for the laptop-story response — which he'd said before. … Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : I dunno what all of this means exactly...but i don't know that is see this as a reactionary right wing turn for MZ...i think he's just always had this (imo not very sophisticated) understanding of FB as a non-editorial entity and is reverting his opinions because enough time has passed from what he views as an ‘emergency’ moment Peter Kafka / @pkafka : Tricky play by Mark Zuckerberg: *Give Republicans something they can wave around as a smoking gun. *Make sure you actually haven't handed them a gun, at all. *Cross your fingers and hope this all works, at least through November. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : I went back today to this old @semaforben column from March 2020 where MZ (like others) saw those first terrifying days of the pandemic as very clarifying. It was hard for him and others to imagine in those moments that covid would become as politicized and polarized as it did. … Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel : MZ has never wanted to have facebook make editorial decisions (even though they are, always, as a result of building, tweaking a platform). this feels to me just like a revert to the 2018 posture from FB. … Ryan Mac / @mac_ryan_ : Leaving aside very interesting debate around government pressure on social media companies, this letter basically admits that Zuckerberg and Meta will cave to political pressure. Zuckerberg writes that because some people (like JD Vance) simply “believe[d]” his 2020 donations to nonpartisan voting protection groups, he will no longer give to initiatives in the future. For Zuckerberg, it's not about conflict of interest, but the *appearance* of conflict of interest. Working the ref worked! Renee DiResta / @renee.diresta : I am still floored by this letter. Look, jawboning is unambiguously bad. We also just had a SCOTUS case highlighting how flimsy the evidence was that it happened in any material way. Zuck was also proactively reaching out *to* health officials ab how FB could help. The policies were a mixed bag - I spent a whole chapter in my 📖 on the difference bt policies related to the lab leak, & policies related to helping people not drink bleach. But this letter reads like...caving to govt pressure. Irony! Bluesky: Mike Masnick / @mmasnick.bsky.social : I swear: writing up this Zuckerberg letter to Jim Jordan is going to kill me, because explaining why it's total bullshit requires unpacking so much other bullshit just to get to the bullshit that is this letter. Mike Masnick / @mmasnick.bsky.social : I've already seen multiple people claiming this is Zuck admitting that they censored content in response to Biden pressure, which if you actually read the letter is not at all what he said. But it's written in a manner that makes it easy to misread it that way. How do Meta staffers not know this? Mike Masnick / @mmasnick.bsky.social : Holy shit, Meta, can you hire a political advisor who doesn't totally shit the bed? This letter from Zuckerberg to Jim Jordan seems almost perfectly composed to enable Jordan & Trump fans to totally misrepresent what actually happened. [images] X: @judiciarygop : Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech. [image] Congressman Russell Fry / @reprussellfry : Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook censored posts on COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal after pressure from the Biden-Harris Admin. Censorship is happening right here in our country and the request is coming straight from the Biden-Harris White House. Rep. Mike Rulli / @repmichaelrulli : House Judiciary Committee will continue fighting to hold big tech accountable for censoring American's free speech. Our work isn't done. Congressman Jeff Van Drew / @congressman_jvd : For years, they dismissed the fact that the Biden-Harris Administration was censoring conservative voices as a conspiracy theory. Now, the truth is unfolding right before our eyes. Congresswoman Laurel Lee / @replaurellee : We are in the process of exposing political corruption at the highest level and at its worst. @JudiciaryGOP will continue to investigate these outrageous actions and we won't stop until we have all the answers. Philip Bump / @pbump : Zuckerberg's effort to get Jim Jordan to stop yelling at him at leads to Trump identifying a culprit in rigging the 2020 election: the Trump White House. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @patrickbetdavid : BREAKING: Mark Zuckerberg just admitted to working with Biden/Harris admin to censor Americans. He either admitted to this because: 1. He's being honorable 2. He's done with the Dem party 3. He's getting ahead of a whistleblower Either way this is a VERY HARD letter to write. [image] Matt Bateman / @mbateman : Interesting that Zuck's position of pushing back against government influence over content on his platforms is being framed, by both him and the media, as striving to be “politically neutral”, rather than the substantive political position that this should not occur. See also Mediagazer