CNN’s Duffy: ‘There’s Not a Ton of Evidence’ Tech Censors Right, Even if Zuckerberg Letter ‘Plays Directly Into’ That

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “First Move,” CNN Business Writer Clare Duffy stated that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to the House Judiciary Committee where he said the company made a mistake when it throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 and faced pressure from the Biden administration to censor content related to the COVID-19 pandemic “plays directly into this narrative that Republican lawmakers have been spreading that big tech companies censor the viewpoints of conservatives. There’s not a ton of evidence of that, but a lot of what Zuckerberg is saying in this letter sort of does play into that narrative.”

Host Lynda Kinkade said, “Well, call it a case of meddling with Meta, the company which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. In a letter to Congress, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the Biden White House pressured his social media firm to censor content during the COVID crisis. The White House says it did it to help save lives, but Zuckerberg says the administration’s demands were wrong. Zuckerberg also says he should not have suppressed the politically-charged story of Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 election, when Donald Trump was president.”

Duffy then stated, “Mark Zuckerberg now saying that he felt pressured by the White House to remove content, including humor and satire related to the pandemic. But, ultimately, it is always still the decision of these platforms about how to moderate their content, and the White House is sticking by what it did. In a statement, it said, ‘Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.’ And this, of course, comes after a Supreme Court ruling that found that the White House can continue to communicate with big tech platforms when they find content that they think is harmful or violates those platforms’ rules. And so, I think we could read this as Mark Zuckerberg sort of saying that he is going to evaluate and respond to those requests differently in the future. But the timing and the sort of format of this communication is really interesting, I think.”

Duffy added, “In many ways, this plays directly into this narrative that Republican lawmakers have been spreading that big tech companies censor the viewpoints of conservatives. There’s not a ton of evidence of that, but a lot of what Zuckerberg is saying in this letter sort of does play into that narrative. And you already see Republican lawmakers celebrating this, saying that it’s proof that the Biden-Harris administration tried to censor conservative voices and pressure big tech companies. I don’t think that that’s exactly what this letter is saying, but it potentially could be really beneficial to them heading into this election period. I think, certainly, what Zuckerberg is trying to do here is kind of hedge his bets and avoid any perception of bias, especially heading into the election, if the company ends up having to make some tough content moderation decisions about political misinformation, he doesn’t want any allegations that that was done at the behest of the Biden White House.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett