Mark Zuckerberg Admits To A Major Mistake
In an unprecedented admission, Mark Zuckerberg has owned up to making a notable mistake in terms of censorship on Facebook.
Many are conflicted about censorship in the age of social media. Though some people think they have a right to post or republish anything their heart desires, others know that social media platforms are private companies with their own lawful terms of service. Facebook is no stranger to censoring content and removing accounts, which was a topic of conversation recently between Joe Rogan and Mark Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg was a guest on the controversial podcast the Joe Rogan Experience. Zuckerberg had a lot of interesting knowledge to share about social media and its ethics, but the surveillance of a 2020 article during election season caught the media’s attention. Before the election, a new story broke about Hunter Biden and alleged emails documenting his father helping him with Ukrainian business deals. Immediately, Facebook and Twitter pulled the story due to possible misinformation. But Facebook reversed that decision shortly after, claiming that the social media site wrongly speculated about the situation’s validity.
Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that he feels ashamed for removing any post in an illegitimate manner. He said it’s “the worst” to take down content that doesn’t conflict with Facebook’s guidelines. Many believed that the decision to censor this story helped Biden get elected in 2020. Still, others believe that Biden aiding his son with his business transactions wouldn’t be much of a dealbreaker. Many right-wing republicans think that the Biden family has committed fraud and that social media has a “leftist” agenda to preserve. This claim may not be supported by solid evidence since Zuckerberg, one of the most prominent social media creators disagrees with the censorship of the Hunter Biden story.
The claim started circulating in October 2020 when Hunter Biden allegedly left his laptop in a repair shop. The computer contained emails that would incriminate Joe Biden and his son for setting up meetings with a Ukrainian energy tycoon. The findings lean into long-running rumors about Biden illicitly fueling his son’s business endeavors. The news was released by the New York Post, a popular yet unaccredited publication that relied on exclusive source material for the story. This led to many dismissing the article once it was published since no other evidence could corroborate the story. Though there isn’t significant evidence to prove that the meeting occurred, Mark Zuckerberg believes it was wrong for Facebook to censor the article.
Mark Zuckerberg revealed his exclusive incite on the case, stating that the FBI informed him about the alleged crime. Though the FBI didn’t name the subject or the case explicitly, they informed Facebook higher-ups that deceitful news stories about Russia would pop up before the election. Using that tip, Zuckerberg deduced that the Huner Biden/ Ukraine situation fit the pattern the government agency warned him about.
Two years later, most of the email evidence remains unclear or unable to be verified. The hard drive that contained the Hunter Biden emails was given to the New York Post by Ruidi Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer. Trump and Guiliani have an ulterior motive to bring down the Biden Administration, which makes both men seem particularly suspicious. Despite who presented the evidence, verifiers cannot confirm the emails’ validity due to the “sloppy handling” of the necessary data.
