‘SHOULDN’T HAVE’

Facebook Scrubbed COVID Posts ‘Under Pressure’ From White House: Report

Content about the virus being man-made was reportedly among the removed posts.

Facebook took down posts about COVID under pressure from the Biden administration, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing internal company communications, the outlet reported on a July 2021 email that Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs, sent to colleagues. “Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man made,” Clegg asked. “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more,” a Facebook vice president responsible for content policy replied, referring to the White House. “We shouldn’t have done it.” Facebook re-evaluated its policies about COVID content after President Joe Biden said false information about the virus was “killing people,” according to the Journal.