The FBI has responded to a claim by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that Facebook algorithmically censored references to Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election after receiving a warning from the bureau about “Russian propaganda.”
Zuckerberg said on an Aug. 25 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that Facebook actively reduced the reach of social media posts discussing the laptop in response to an FBI advisory to some Facebook employees to be on the lookout for misinformation. Russian before the presidential elections.
“The background here is the FBI, I think it basically came down to some people on our team [and] were like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, we’ve noticed that basically there’s going to be some kind of dump like that, so just be vigilant,’” Zuckerberg told Rogan.
FBI: The warning was general in nature
The FBI responded by issuing a statement to the media on August 26, saying that its warning to Facebook was general in nature and did not include a call to action.
The FBI said it “routinely notifies U.S. private sector entities, including social media providers, of potential threat information so they can decide how best to protect against threats” and that the agency ” has provided companies with foreign threat indicators to help them protect their platforms and customers from abuse by foreign malicious actors.”
However, the bureau “cannot require or direct companies to take action on information received.”
Statement on Meta matters
Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, has also issued a clarifying statement, saying in a The tweet that Zuckerberg’s remarks to Rogan were essentially the same as those he made to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in 2020.
“The FBI shared general warnings about foreign interference — nothing specific to Hunter Biden,” the company said in a statement.
Clips showing Zuckerberg’s response to Rogan quickly went viral, sparking a flurry of criticism of the FBI, with some accusing the agency of engaging in election meddling.
“This is not just insanity, it is election interference,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) in a statement, while calling on Zuckerberg to testify before Congress “about the FBI’s efforts to circumvent the First Amendment.”
A similar harsh attitude was expressed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“The same FBI that lied about Russia ‘collusion’ and raided President Trump’s home asked Facebook to manipulate its feed to bury the Hunter Biden story,” Jordan. said in a statement.
Zuckerberg told Rogan as much on the podcast when asked if the FBI specified that Facebook should be “on alert” for the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“No. I don’t remember if it was this one specifically. But it was, it basically fit the pattern,” Zuckerberg replied.
Hunter Biden’s laptop
The laptop of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, became the subject of scandal and scrutiny in October 2020 after the New York Post broke the story on the contents of the hard drive, which included information about the younger Biden’s foreign affairs and personal life. personal shit. .
After the story broke, much of its coverage by mainstream media focused on the possibility that the laptop was Russian disinformation aimed at damaging Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
The laptop story was also suppressed by Facebook and Twitter, while a group of former intelligence officials came forward and said in a letter (pdf) that it had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation”.
John Ratcliffe, then director of national intelligence, said at the time that there was no intelligence to support the claim that the laptop was Russian disinformation.
Recently, Ratcliffe told Fox News in an interview on August 26 that, if the FBI was indeed trying to delete information about the laptop, it would constitute election interference.
“It’s election interference, to the extent that these allegations are true that FBI agents were knowingly putting bad information out there, absolutely,” he said.
Polling has shown that if the public had been aware of the suppressed story before the election, it may have cost the elder Biden a few percentage points of the electorate – perhaps enough to derail his bid for the White House.
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Tom Ozimek has an extensive background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best written advice he ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: ‘Hit your target’ and ‘save the best for last’.
