Mark Zuckerberg is really sorry for censoring you

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday that the government pressured his company to censor content during the Covid-19 pandemic and said he regrets following their wishes. The committee described his comments as a “big win for free speech.”

Meta produced thousands of documents for the committee’s investigation into alleged government censorship and Zuckerberg wrote the supplemental letter to outline what he had learned during the process. “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content,…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday that the government pressured his company to censor content during the Covid-19 pandemic and said he regrets following their wishes. The committee described his comments as a “big win for free speech.”

Meta produced thousands of documents for the committee’s investigation into alleged government censorship and Zuckerberg wrote the supplemental letter to outline what he had learned during the process. “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” he said. Zuckerberg said content related to Hunter Biden’s laptop was also in the sights of government officials, as the FBI approached Meta and warned stories of Biden family corruption were part of a “potential Russian disinformation operation.” Meta complied by demoting articles related to these issues.

“Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction,” Zuckerberg wrote. He promised that his company would be ready to push back on government pressure in the future and said he wished he had handled the situation differently ahead of the 2020 election.

There have been bipartisan feelings of skepticism regarding Zuckerberg’s supposed come-to-Jesus moment. Left-leaning tech reporter Kara Swisher said Zuckerberg is trying to “hedge his bets” when it comes to the November election while conservatives alleged he only “regrets” censoring Americans because he got caught. It could also be sincere; Zuckerberg has had several “conservative-coded” moments in the past few months. He recently said in a podcast interview that Trump’s response to the assassination attempt against him was “badass” and posted a Fourth of July video with him in a suit, drinking what appeared to be a Coors Banquet and waving an American flag while surfing.

Adding to the self-preservation motivation, though, is the fact that a Louisiana court just cleared the way for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to sue the Biden administration for pressuring social media companies to censor his Covid-19 and vaccine content. A previous case brought by epidemiologists who say they were censored at the behest of the Biden administration, Murthy v. Missouri, was dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of standing. If RFK’s case proceeds, Zuckerberg certainly won’t want to look like a willing mark for the US government.

-Amber Duke

On our radar

CONSULTANTS IN COURT House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena for the Democratic strategy company that employs Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter. Merchan is overseeing the New York “hush-money” case against former president Donald Trump. Trump argued Merchan’s daughter’s job is a conflict of interest.

‘I JUST FELT TERRIBLE’ Senator and Trump running mate J.D. Vance expressed regret for an awkward moment during a recent donut shop visit where one of the employees said she did not want to be on camera. “We walked in, and there’s twenty Secret Service agents, and there’s fifteen cameras, and she clearly had not been properly warned, and she was terrified, right?” Vance said.

OUT ON LOAN The Supreme Court kept a block issued by lower courts on President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program for approximately eight million borrowers. The SAVE Plan was aimed at a smaller portion of student loan borrowers after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional Biden’s plan to forgive debt under the HEROES Act.

Smith hits Trump again

Trump is facing a revised indictment on his election interference charges by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith filed a superseding indictment against the former president, accusing him of resisting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election and taking part in a conspiracy to block Biden’s entry into the White House.

The new indictment lays out the same four charges brought against Trump last year but focuses on Trump as a candidate seeking reelection rather than president. The indictment is intended to deal with the Supreme Court’s decision granting Trump presidential immunity from charges relating to official acts as president by trying to distinguish some of Trump’s actions from private and official.

The new document, containing thirty-six instead of forty-five pages, alleges that Trump’s false statements about election fraud and social media posts during his speech near the White House on January 6, 2021, were campaign related, and therefore private instead of official acts. The indictment also removed allegations against Jeffrey Clark, then an assistant attorney general claimed to be a co-conspirator. Clark allegedly helped Trump pressure other Justice Department officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the revised indictment states, a line that did not appear in the original charging document.

Trump previously pleaded not guilty to all charges, writing on his Truth Social platform that the fresh indictment is “an effort to resurrect a ‘dead Witch Hunt’” and “distract the American people” from this year’s election, calling for the case to be “dismissed IMMEDIATELY.”

Last month, a federal judge in Florida tossed out charges brought against Trump by Smith for mishandling classified documents, arguing that Smith’s appointment to the case was illegal. Smith has appealed that decision. “For them to do this immediately after our Supreme Court victory on immunity and more, is shocking,” Trump wrote.

-Elisenne Stoller

Angela’s pension predicament

One of the Democratic Party’s most widely-touted Senate candidates has posted a mysterious series of campaign finance filings, according to a review from The Spectator. Last year, Angela Alsobrooks listed a pension from her county government worth up to $50,000; this year, it is gone.

Alsobrooks failing to disclose her pension this year could potentially run afoul of ethics guidelines; her campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment about the discrepancy.

It’s also not the only asset that vanished between 2023 and 2024. She also listed a Navy Federal Credit Union account as “interest” that is no longer on her current forms.

Prince George’s County, which Alsobrooks helms as county executive, offers its employees generous pensions. While it’s possible that the money from either of her accounts dropped below the $1,000 reporting threshold, any withdrawals should have been disclosed by her as income — and none were listed as such.

Basic financial mismanagement would be nothing new to Alsobrooks, whose county is expecting a $171 million shortfall this year. PG County also canceled its long-running fair this year, citing a lack of volunteers. Alsobrooks, who recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention, is currently tied in her race for Maryland’s open Senate seat against former Republican governor Larry Hogan.

-Matthew Foldi