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Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that Facebook censored the ‘Hunter Biden laptop’ story for a week using an algorithm. He admitted it on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Zuckerberg stated that he did so in response to a general request from the FBI to limit election misinformation.
During the podcast, Joe Rogan asked Zuckerberg about how Facebook handles contentious issues such as the ‘Hunter Biden’ story and whether it was censored.
In response, Zuckerberg stated, “As a result, we went in a different direction than Twitter. I mean, in this case, the FBI basically came to us…some of our team. “Hey, just so you know…you should be on high alert,” they said. We believe there was a significant amount of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, and we have noted it. That’s basically it…going there’s to be some kind of dump. Simply be cautious.”
While criticising Twitter for completely blacking out the story, Zuckerberg admitted that the story was censored on Facebook, reducing its reach.
“As a result, our protocol is distinct from Twitter’s. “You cannot share this at all,” Twitter responded. That is not what we did. We did the following…if something was reported to us as potential misinformation…important misinformation, we also ran third-party fact-checking programmes because we don’t want to be deciding what’s true and false and… I believe Facebook’s distribution was reduced five or seven days before it was determined whether it was true or false, but people were still allowed to share it “He elaborated.
He later stated, “We received a lot of complaints…this is a hyper-political issue.” So, depending on which side of the political spectrum you are on, we weren’t as black and white about it as Twitter.”
Meanwhile, in the midst of the controversy, Republicans accused Facebook of stifling conservative voices.
According to the New York Post, more than 50 former senior intelligence officials signed a letter claiming that the laptop story “has all the hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”
When asked if he regretted Facebook’s response to the story, Zuckerberg replied, “Is there regret for not having it evenly distributed and for throttling the distribution of that story?”
He said, “Yeah, it stinks…after the fact-checkers looked into it, no one was able to say it was false… I think it stinks, in the same way that having to go through a criminal trial but ultimately being proven innocent stinks.”
In 2020, the New York Post published an exposé that revealed the existence of tens of thousands of emails between Biden’s son Hunter and Ukrainian business associates. The emails, according to the New York Post, revealed how Biden’s son used his political connections in his overseas business dealings.
According to the New York Times, Biden’s presidential campaign rejected the New York Post report about Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.
“We reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time, and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,” Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, was quoted as saying.
Sohrab Ahmari, the New York Post’s op-ed editor, revealed three weeks before the US presidential elections that Twitter was no longer allowing him to post stories about “corruption by a major-party presidential candidate, Biden.”
Following Twitter’s refusal to allow the New York Post’s article on Biden, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter and wrote, “So bad that Facebook and Twitter took down the @NYPost story about “Smoking Gun” emails involving Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. It is only the beginning for them. Nothing is more heinous than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!!”
