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

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.