• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook censored the Hunter Biden laptop story for up to a week

Home> News

Published 02:38 26 Aug 2022 GMT+1

Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook censored the Hunter Biden laptop story for up to a week

During a surprise appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, the CEO said the FBI warned them about misinformation.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed Facebook censored the Hunter Biden laptop story after he was warned about misinformation from the FBI.

The Meta CEO made a surprise appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where the two talked about social media and how it's affecting the world at the moment.

Rogan asked Zuckerberg about one of the biggest issues that plagued Joe Biden's US Presidential election campaign in 2020.

Just before Americans went to the polls to vote for Biden or Donald Trump, a story was released by The New York Post claiming Joe's son, Hunter, had a laptop that was handed into the FBI by a computer repair shop.

Advert

There was a lot of speculation about what was actually on the laptop and Donald Trump's team leapt at the chance to criticise Biden.

However, because so much was unknown about the story, it was censored on social media.

Twitter restricted users from sharing The Post's article about the story, however Facebook chose to go a different route.

Advert

Zuckerberg explained to Joe Rogan that in the lead-up to the 2020 US Election, FBI agents spoke with Meta staff about misinformation due to the issues that allegedly plagued the 2016 election.

These agents said Facebook needs to be on high-alert for a potential bombshell, but didn't reveal exactly what it was going to be.

When the Hunter Biden laptop story was published and started gaining traction, Zuckerberg said they erred on the side of caution and censored it for up to a week.

"We just kind of thought, 'Hey look, if the FBI — which I still view as a legitimate institution in this country, it's very professional law enforcement — they come to us and tell us we need to be on guard about something, then I want to take that seriously," he said.

Advert

He added: “This is a hyper-political issue, so depending on what side of the political spectrum, you either think we didn’t censor enough or censored it way too much, but we weren’t as black and white about it as Twitter."

Dominick Sokotoff/ZUMA Press Wire

Zuckerberg said people were still able to share the article Facebook, unlike Twitter.

However, the distribution was decreased in people's newsfeeds on Facebook because the story kept getting flagged as false by fact checkers.

Advert

He added: "For the five or seven days when it was basically being determined whether it was false, the distribution on Facebook was decreased, but people were still allowed to share it."

When asked whether he felt this decision was, in hindsight, a good one, Zuckerberg said the process was right but the reality was regrettable.

“Yeah, it sucks...it turned out after the fact, the fact-checkers looked into it, no one was able to say it was false," he said.

"I think it sucks, though, in the same way that probably having to go through a criminal trial but being proven innocent in the end sucks.”

Featured Image Credit: The Joe Rogan Experience/Spotify

Topics: Joe Biden, Mark Zuckerberg, Joe Rogan, Social Media

Stewart Perrie
Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

X

@stewartperrie

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

6 hours ago
7 hours ago
8 hours ago
  • 6 hours ago

    Ex-pilot of B-2 stealth bomber reveals disturbing truth of going to toilet on 44-hour mission

    Air Force colonel Melvin Deaile had to go for a wee every 60 minutes

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    People left stunned as woman breaks down exactly how much it costs to give birth in America

    You could put deposits down on several houses for that!

    News
  • 8 hours ago

    Doctor gives 'deeply concerning' warning after man injected himself with sperm to 'cure back pain'

    A man self-medicated by injecting himself with his own semen to 'cure' his back pain

    News
  • 8 hours ago

    Rosie O’Donnell issues scathing response to all the celebrities who attended Jeff Bezos’ $56,000,000 wedding

    "Seeing all these billionaires gathering in the gross excess of it all. The show of it," she wrote on Instagram.

    Celebrity
  • Brutal email Mark Zuckerberg sent to all Facebook staff after they were leaking information
  • Mark Zuckerberg claims Apple is making money in controversial way after saying 'they haven't invented anything great' since iPhone
  • Mark Zuckerberg breaks silence on rumors of 5000-square-foot Doomsday shelter underneath $270,000,000 house
  • Elon Musk issues three-word response to Mark Zuckerberg as Meta plans to copy X in a big way