(DC Pundit) – Social media giant Meta has been caught in a whirlwind of political pressure that would make even the sturdiest of tech titans quiver. Let’s dive into this digital drama, shall we?
Mark Zuckerberg, the man who turned poking people into a multi-billion dollar enterprise, recently came clean on Joe Rogan’s podcast about the Biden administration’s rather aggressive approach to content moderation.
Picture this: government officials, presumably in their best “I’m very important” voices, screaming and cursing at Meta’s team to censor content.
“Basically, these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg revealed.
But Meta, ever the defender of truth (and memes), stood their ground. “It just got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we’re not gonna … take down things that are true. That’s ridiculous,'” Zuckerberg added.
The Biden administration’s crusade against COVID-19 misinformation reached peak intensity when the President himself accused Facebook of “killing people.” Talk about a status update gone wrong. Biden stated, “They’re killing people. Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.” One can only imagine Zuckerberg’s reaction: “Unfriend.”
But the real kicker came when the administration tried to censor a meme featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. Yes, you read that right. The government wanted to take down a joke about potential future lawsuits related to COVID-19 vaccines. Because nothing says “we’re handling this pandemic well” like trying to censor Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV screen.
Zuckerberg, in a moment of unexpected backbone, refused to bow to the pressure. “We’re not gonna take down humor and satire. We’re not gonna take down things that are, that are true,” he stated.
JUST IN: Mark Zuckerberg reveals that officials in the Biden admin called his team at Meta to "scream and curse" at them to take down certain posts during COVID.
One of the posts was this meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV with the caption, "Did you or a loved one take… pic.twitter.com/fhpMlXpztN
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 10, 2025
Q: "On COVID misinformation, what's your message to platforms like Facebook."
President Biden: "They're killing people. Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated and they're killing people." pic.twitter.com/87PrHEJBs3
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 16, 2021
The Meta CEO, who’s “generally pretty pro about rolling out vaccines,” found himself in the uncomfortable position of defending content that questioned the vaccine program. “They pushed us super hard to take down things that … honestly were true,” he admitted.
Zuckerberg recently announced the end of Meta’s “politically biased” fact-checker program. Instead, they’re adopting a community notes model similar to X (formerly Twitter). “We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes [from fact checkers] and too much censorship,” Zuckerberg explained, presumably while drafting his application to join Elon Musk’s mission to Mars.
As if to drive home their newfound independence, Meta has pledged $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund and added UFC president Dana White, a known Trump ally, to its board of directors.
In conclusion, it seems that Meta has decided to unfriend the Biden administration’s aggressive content moderation tactics.
As we move forward one can’t help but wonder: Will the next presidential debate be held in the Metaverse?
Only time, and perhaps a few more podcasts, will tell.
Copyright 2025. DCPundit.com | Featured image credit: Anthony Quintano
