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Zuckerberg Stops Political Donations, Regrets Meta's Handling of Covid-19 Content

AInvestTuesday, Aug 27, 2024 4:11 am ET
2min read

Just as Harris is at the peak of her popularity, Mark Zuckerberg unexpectedly told the House subcommittee that he has decided to stop donating to avoid accusations of political bias, as such expenditures during the 2020 election have aroused the vigilance of Republicans.

In addition, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret in a letter to Congressman Jim Jordan for the way Meta has handled some government suppression requests in the past, especially those related to Covid-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop case.

Zuckerberg's Challenge

On Monday, the Meta CEO wrote to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, expressing his dissatisfaction in response to the committee's investigation into the content moderation of online platforms. Zuckerberg detailed how senior government officials forced the company to review certain posts about Covid-19, including humor and satire, and expressed great dissatisfaction when the social media platform refused.

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

Zuckerberg also said that he has decided to stop donating to local governments to manage elections to avoid being accused of political bias.

During the 2020 election, Zuckerberg and his wife donated more than $400 million to non-profit organizations to help local governments in the United States manage elections during the pandemic. Although these funds helped many local governments to complete voter registration, establish voting stations with social distancing, and sort mail-in ballots, this move aroused the vigilance of the Republicans. Republicans called these funds Zuck Bucks, believing that they unfairly benefited the Democratic election.

Due to strong opposition from the Republicans, more than twenty states (mostly Republican-leaning) have banned, restricted, or constrained the use of private funds to manage elections. Zuckerberg mentioned in his letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, that although the analysis he saw did not show that the donation was beneficial to a particular party, he understood this concern, so he decided not to make similar donations to remain neutral and avoid playing any role in politics.

Reactions from All Sides

This letter is the latest development in the debate over the role of social media companies in suppressing content-friendly to conservatives in Washington over the years. At the end of 2022, Elon Musk (Elon Musk) acquired Twitter (now Twitter X), turning the platform into a haven for free speech and restoring many banned conservative posters, making Zuckerberg a specific target of Jordan.

Jordan demanded that Meta provide a large number of internal communication records and threatened to hold a contempt of Congress hearing for this tech tycoon, but eased the situation at the last minute, saying that Meta has provided the documents he requested.

After the aforementioned letter was made public, Republicans led by Jim Jordan published a series of long articles on X to celebrate this letter, calling it a major victory for free speech.

The White House issued a statement in defense of the government's handling of information on the new crown epidemic. The statement said: When faced with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position is clear and consistent: We believe that technology companies and other private actors must consider the effects their actions have on the American people while making independent choices about the information they present.

Impact on the Election?

Republican candidate and former President of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticized social media platforms for censoring conservative voices. In July, Trump warned on his social media platform Truth Social that if he is elected president again, he will "pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time."

Trump also said that Zuckerberg called him several times in the past few weeks, including after he was attacked in mid-July. Zuckerberg told him that out of this respect, he would not support Democrats in the election.

It is worth mentioning that in 2019, Zuckerberg proposed to then-US President Trump to ban TikTok and expressed support for Trump's re-election. So Trump announced that he would take action to ban TikTok as soon as possible, but after Trump failed to be re-elected, the ban on TikTok was also shelved. In March this year, Trump rarely posted to support TikTok, saying that without TikTok, the business of Facebook and Zuckerberg would double.

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