Zuckerberg says Biden administration pushed Meta ‘super hard’ to take down vaccine content
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024. Meta debuted its first pair of augmented reality glasses, devices that show a combined view of the digital and physical worlds, a key step in Zuckerberg’s goal of one day offering a hands-free alternative to the smartphone.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan in a podcast published on Friday that his company was pressured by the Biden administration to remove content on side effects of Covid vaccines.
Early in a conversation that lasted about three hours, Zuckerberg told Rogan that he’s generally “pretty pro rolling out vaccines” and that they are “more positive than negative.”
“But I think that while they’re trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it,” Zuckerberg said.
A Biden administration representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The remarks come days after Meta said it would stop relying on third parties to check facts published on its widely used applications and instead turn to community notes, letting users add commentary regarding truthfulness. The strategy puts Meta more inline with X, whose owner, Elon Musk, has been advising President-elect Donald Trump and was a major backer of his campaign.
It’s also the latest in a string of announcements and comments following Trump’s election that appear targeted at appeasing the incoming president. Last week, Meta replaced its president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, the company’s current policy vice president and a former Republican Party staffer.
Meta was one of several large technology companies to announce that it was contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, NBC News reported.
Zuckerberg has expressed criticism in the past about the Biden administration’s handling of Covid-related content.
In a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee in August, Zuckerberg said the administration “pressured” Meta to “censor” Covid-19 content, adding that he regretted some of the decisions the company made following those requests.
“And they pushed us super hard, to take down the things that were honestly were true,” Zuckerberg told Rogan. “They basically pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.”
Zuckerberg didn’t specify who from the White House made the requests, acknowledging that “I wasn’t involved in those conversations directly.” But he said the company’s response was that it wasn’t going to take down content that “is kind of inarguably true.”
The Food and Drug Administration said in 2021 that headache, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and fever were the most common side effects of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid vaccine. Worldwide, Covid vaccines are credited with saving tens of millions of lives a year when the pandemic was raging.
On a separate matter, Zuckerberg said that the U.S. government hasn’t done enough to protect its technology industry, leaving too much power in the hands of regulators abroad. He said the European Union has fined technology companies more than $30 billion over the past 20 years.
“It’s one of the things that I’m optimistic about with President Trump, is I think he just wants America to win,” Zuckerberg said.
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TikTok said its services will go dark on Sunday without a guarantee from the Biden administration that it won’t punish Apple, Google and other service providers if they support the app.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” TikTok said in a statement on Friday.
The statement indicates that TikTok’s American users base, which the company claims is over 170 million, will not be able to use the service when they open the app or website on Sunday.
TikTok issued the statement after the Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously to uphold a law requiring that service providers no longer support its app within the U.S. if parent company ByteDance fails to carry out a “qualified divestiture” of the app by Sunday. As a result, Apple, Google and Oracle could face tough penalties if they fail to adhere to the law.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in its statement.
However, Biden’s term ends on Monday, when President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term in the White House. Trump, who previously supported a TikTok ban, later flip-flopped on the matter. In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and allow his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
In a Friday post on his social media app Truth Social, Trump wrote, “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Earlier Friday, the Biden administration issued a statement saying TikTok “should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership.”
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” the statement said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco, his deputy, said in a release that the decision “enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security.”
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The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok by Sunday or face an effective ban of the popular social video app in the U.S.
ByteDance has so far refused to sell TikTok, meaning many U.S. users could lose access to the app this weekend. The app may still work for those who already have TikTok on their phones, although ByteDance has also threatened to shut the app down.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which President Joe Biden signed in April.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the Supreme Court’s opinion said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch wrote concurrences.
TikTok’s fate in the U.S. now lies in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump, who originally favored a TikTok ban during his first administration, but has since flip-flopped on the matter. In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and allow his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
In a post on his social media app Truth Social, Trump wrote that the decision was expected “and everyone must respect it.”
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump wrote.
Trump began to speak more favorably of TikTok after he met in February with billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass. Yass is a major ByteDance investor who also owns a stake in the owner of Truth Social.
Trump will be inaugurated Monday, one day after the TikTok deadline for a sale. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is one of several tech leaders expected to be in attendance, seated on the dais.
In a video posted on TikTok, Chew thanked Trump “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available” in the U.S. He said use of TikTok is a First Amendment right, adding that over 7 million American businesses use it to make money and find customers.
“Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery as well as a source of inspiration and joy for years to come,” he said.
The nation’s highest court said in the opinion that while “data collection and analysis is a common practice in this digital age,” the sheer size of TikTok and its “susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects” poses a national security concern.
Under the terms of the law, third-party internet service providers such as Apple and Google will be penalized for supporting a ByteDance-owned TikTok after the Jan. 19 deadline.
If service providers and app store owners comply, consumers will be unable to install the necessary updates that make the app functional.
Representatives of TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Users look for alternatives
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated Biden’s support for the law in a statement, saying “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.”
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” Pierre said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco, his deputy, said in a release that the decision “enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security.”
Kate Ruane, the director of the Center for Democracy and Technology nonprofit, criticized the ruling, saying in a statement that it “harms the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in this country and around the world.”
In December, members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, urging the executives to begin preparing to comply with the law.
Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, speaks to reporters outside the office of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) at the Russell Senate Office Building on March 14, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
On Jan. 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from lawyers representing TikTok, content creators and the U.S. government. TikTok’s lead lawyer, Noel Francisco, argued that the law violates the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million American users. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the app’s alleged ties to the Chinese government pose a national security threat.
Many TikTok creators have been telling their fans to find them on competing social platforms such as Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, CNBC reported. Additionally, Instagram leaders scheduled meetings after the Jan. 10 Supreme Court hearing to direct workers to prepare for a wave of users if the court upholds the law.
Chinese social media app and TikTok look-alike RedNote rose to the top of Apple’s app store Monday, indicating that TikTok’s millions of users were seeking alternatives.
The Chinese government also weighed a contingency plan that would have X owner Elon Musk acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations as part of several options intended to keep the app from its effective ban in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported Monday.
Should ByteDance decide to sell TikTok to a U.S. company or group of investors, potential buyers may have to pay between $40 billion and $50 billion, according to an estimate by CFRA Research Senior Vice President Angelo Zino.
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