Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that the Biden administration pressured Meta to suppress posts critical of Covid-19 vaccines, namely those warning of potential side effects.
During an interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg broke down exactly what transpired.
Zuckerberg said that while he initially felt as though Meta "should give a bit of deference to the government and the health authorities on how we should play this," his perspective changed as things progressed and the new messaging became harder to follow.
"This really hit the most extreme during the Biden administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program," he added, making sure to note that he's "generally pretty pro-rolling out vaccines" and that, "on balance the vaccines are more positive than negative."
Zuckerberg then explained, however, that what he did take issue with was the ensuing push by the administration to "censor anyone who was arguing against it."
"They pushed us super hard to take down things that, honestly, were true," he continued. "They pushed us and said, 'anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you need to take down,' and I was like 'we're not gonna do that'."
When pressed on who exactly was doing the pushing, Zuckerberg admitted that he wasn't directly involved in the conversations.
Zuckerberg went on to note that Biden administration officials "would call up our team and scream at them and curse," but that he remained steadfast in his commitment not to take down things that were true. Among the posts the Biden administration demanded be removed was a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio.
He explained that when Meta refused, Biden suggested their inaction was "killing people," and all of a sudden a bunch of agencies began targeting the company.
"It was brutal," he lamented.