Zuckerberg unexpectedly took action!
Just as Harris was at his peak, Mark Zuckerberg unexpectedly launched an attack. The Meta CEO told a House subcommittee that he has decided to stop donating to avoid accusations of political bias, as such spending during the 2020 election has raised concerns among Republicans.
In addition, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret in a letter submitted to Congressman Jim Jordan regarding Meta's past handling of some government suppression requests, particularly those related to Covid-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop case.
This matter has attracted widespread media attention. So, how much impact will this have on the Democratic Party's election prospects? What is Zuckerberg's true intention?
Zuckerberg launches a challenge
On Monday local time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote to Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expressing his dissatisfaction in response to the committee's investigation into content censorship on online platforms. Zuckerberg detailed how senior government officials forced the company to review certain posts related to Covid-19, including humor and satire, and expressed great dissatisfaction when rejected on social media platforms.
I think government pressure is wrong, and I'm sorry we didn't express our views more bluntly, "Zuckerberg wrote. I strongly believe that we should not sacrifice our content standards due to any government pressure - if such a thing happens again, we are prepared to fight back
Zuckerberg also expressed regret for concealing reports about Hunter Biden from The New York Post before the 2020 election, and the FBI warned that these reports may have originated from Russia's false advertising campaign.
He wrote, "It has now been made clear that the report is not false information about Russia, and in retrospect, we should not downgrade the level of the report
Zuckerberg also stated that he has decided to stop donating to local government elections to avoid accusations of political bias.
During the 2020 election, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chen donated over $400 million to non-profit organizations to help local governments in the United States manage elections during the pandemic. Although these funds have helped many local governments complete tasks such as voter registration, establishing polling stations to maintain social distancing, and sorting and mailing ballots, this move has raised concerns among the Republican Party. Republicans refer to these funds as "Zack coins" and believe they unfairly benefit Democratic elections.
Due to strong opposition from the Republican Party, over twenty states (mostly leaning towards the Republican Party) have banned, restricted, or constrained the use of private funds to manage elections. Zuckerberg mentioned in a letter to Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that although the analysis he saw did not show that donations were beneficial to any party, he understood this concern and therefore decided not to make similar donations again to maintain neutrality and avoid playing any role in politics.
Reactions from all parties
This letter is the latest development in the long-standing debate in Washington about the role of social media companies in suppressing conservative friendly content. At the end of 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now Twitter X), turning the platform into a safe haven for "free speech" and restoring many banned conservative posters, making Zuckerberg a specific target for Jordan.
Jordan demanded that Meta provide a large amount of internal communication records and threatened to hold a contempt of Congress hearing against the tech tycoon, but softened the situation at the last minute, stating that Meta had provided the documents he requested.
After the aforementioned letter was made public, Republicans led by Jim Jordan published a series of lengthy articles on X to celebrate it, calling it a "major victory for freedom of speech.
The White House issued a statement defending the way the government handled the information about the COVID-19 epidemic. The statement said: "In the face of the deadly epidemic, this government encourages responsible action to protect public health and safety. Our position has always been clear and consistent. We believe that technology companies and other private enterprises should consider the impact of their actions on the American people, and make independent choices about the information they provide."
Does it affect the election situation?
Republican candidate and former US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized social media platforms for their censorship of right-wing voices. In July, Trump warned on his social media platform Truth Social that if re elected as president, he would "pursue election fraudsters with unprecedented force and imprison them for long periods of time".
Trump previously stated that Zuckerberg had called him multiple times in the past few weeks, including after his assassination in mid July. Zuckerberg told him that out of respect, he would not support Democrats in the election.
It is worth mentioning that in 2019, Zuckerberg proposed to then US President Trump to ban TikTok and expressed support for Trump's re-election. So Trump announced that he would take action to ban TikTok as soon as possible, but after Trump's re-election failure, TikTok's ban was also put on hold. In March of this year, Trump made a rare statement supporting TikTok, stating that without TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerberg's businesses would double.
On the other hand, the campaign team of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris announced last Sunday that she has raised $540 million in just over a month since starting her presidential campaign, with a surge in donations during last week's Democratic National Convention. The $540 million raised includes $82 million raised during the convention, indicating the Democratic Party's enthusiasm for her candidacy.