Zuckerberg spoke about the White House's demand to remove a meme featuring DiCaprio.

US Presidential Administration Joe Biden demanded that Meta (which is considered extremist and banned in RUSSIA) remove a meme about the CORONAVIRUS pandemic featuring actor Leonardo DiCaprio from its social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads). Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg made this statement on Joe Rogan's podcast.

According to the businessman, the White House threatened his company with "harsh measures" for refusing to remove the meme, "called our team, yelled at them, and swore at them."

"It was a meme with Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV. It said that in 10 years, you'll see an ad saying that if you get vaccinated against COVID, you'll be eligible for compensation," the Meta founder explained.

The presidential administration argued that the meme, in its view, ridicules potential lawsuits related to vaccine side effects, he said.

"We said, 'No, we're not going to remove humor. It's absurd,'" Zuckerberg said.

In addition, according to the businessman, the US administration demanded the removal of any materials that mentioned the side effects of vaccines, even if they were true.

Pressure from the White House intensified after Biden's statement that social media memes were "killing people," Zuckerberg continued.

"Various agencies launched investigations against our company. It was harsh, very harsh," he added.

The entrepreneur noted that although the Meta team was unable to record the calls, they nevertheless published the threatening letters.

Zuckerberg also added that he changed his approach to censorship after trust in traditional media "fell into the abyss."

In August 2024 , Zuckerberg acknowledged for the first time instances of censorship on Facebook due to pressure from US authorities. He said the company had censored content on the social network related tocovid-19 , due to "pressure" from the White House.

“In 2021, senior officials in the [US President Joe] Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19-related content, including humor and satire, and expressed intense frustration with our teams if we did not comply,” the entrepreneur said.

However, Zuckerberg emphasized that the decision to remove content remained Meta's. "I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we weren't more forthcoming about it. I also believe we made some choices that <...> we wouldn't make now. <...> I firmly believe we should not compromise our content standards because of pressure from any administration," the entrepreneur stated.

In early January, Zuckerberg announced Meta's intention to "significantly reduce censorship," eliminate fact-checkers, and increase the amount of recommended political content on social media. Fact-checkers will be replaced with user-submitted comments, similar to how X is implemented.

Zuckerberg explained the innovations by his desire, together with US President-elect Donald Trump, to "fight back against governments that target American companies and push for greater censorship."

Trump accused Zuckerberg of conspiring against him during the 2020 election and threatened him with "the rest of his life in prison" if he interfered with the 2024 vote. After the election, the Republican dined at his Mar-a-Lago residence with the HEAD of Meta, he wrote.BLOOMBERG . As Stephen Miller, an adviser to the president-elect, stated, Zuckerberg "has made it very clear that he wants to be a supporter and participant in the changes we're seeing across America." Late last year, Meta donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, something it had never done before.

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