Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms (hereinafter referred to as Meta), has declared a halt to political donations ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 26th local time that Zuckerberg said in a letter to Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee (Republican, Ohio) of the U.S. House of Representatives, “My goal is to remain politically neutral.”
Zuckerberg, along with his wife Priscilla Chan, is a big hand who has donated more than $400 million in funding to election-related nonprofits ahead of the 2020 election.
At the time, Zuckerberg and his wife explained that they were donating a large amount of money to prevent voting disruptions or undermining election fairness due to COVID-19 quarantine measures.
CEO Zuckerberg said in the letter, “The Joe Biden administration exerted pressure to censor humor and satirical content about COVID-19 in 2021.” The Biden administration encouraged all citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time, and Facebook also actively participated. “I regret that I should have clearly opposed government pressure at the time. I believe that no matter what pressure is applied by any administration, we should not compromise content standards,” he said.
CEO Zuckerberg publicly criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies during the 2016 presidential election. When Trump’s supporters stormed the Washington Congress on January 6, 2021, objecting to his 2020 presidential defeat, Trump suspended his Facebook and Instagram accounts for inciting them.
Republicans have raised suspicions that such support is an unfair act to help Democrats.
Zuckerberg said, “I don’t want to give the impression that I play a role or a role to others. I will not donate anything similar to the previous election.”
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
