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Mark Zuckerberg: “WH Put Pressure on Us to Censor the Lab Leak Theory”

Texts between Zuckerberg and Facebook executives characterize the Biden White House as ‘highly cynical and dishonest.’

Published

14 hours ago

May 2, 2024

ZeroHedge

This article originally appeared on ZeroHedge and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Tyler Durden

Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) has released several new pieces of previously unseen information revealing what Elon Musk called a “smoking gun” in regards White House pressure on Facebook to censor the lab leak theory of Covid-19.

First, Jordan shares a text message from Mark Zuckerberg to Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg and Joel Kaplan – the company’s highest-ranking executives at the time, in which he asks if Facebook can tell the world that “the [Biden] WH put pressure on us to censor the lab leak theory?” – hours after Biden accused Facebook of “killing people.”

On July 16, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg texted Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg, and Joel Kaplan.

Three of the highest ranking executives at Facebook.

Could Facebook tell the world that “the [Biden] WH put pressure on us to censor the lab leak theory?” pic.twitter.com/B1Wno3ayTW
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 1, 2024

Clegg responded that the Biden White house is “highly cynical and dishonest,” while Sandberg said that they were being scapegoated because the White House wasn’t hitting its vaccination numbers.

Facebook felt that they had been combatting alleged misinformation—aka censoring Americans—all year! pic.twitter.com/HQxQKrwX5z
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 1, 2024

Facebook felt, in fact, that they had been ‘combating misinformation,’ (aka censoring Americans) all year.

Since February 2021, the company had been censoring the “Wuhan lab leak theory” “in response to … tense conversations with the new [Biden] Administration.” pic.twitter.com/lB9wg7tlDe
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 1, 2024

Then in late May of 2021, Facebook finally stopped removing content regarding the lab leak theory – though they did demote it. When employees told Zuckerberg about the reversal and explained why they censored the lab leak theory in the first place, Zuckerberg replied that this is what happens when Facebook “compromises [its] standards due to pressure from an administration.”

These documents show the CHILLING EFFECT government coercion has on free expression.

Facebook knew the White House wanted them to censor, but they didn’t exactly know what or how much.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 1, 2024

According to Elon Musk, this is a “Smoking gun First Amendment violation.”