Mark Zuckerberg recently made comments over the apparent censorship that his company was subjected to by the Biden administration during the peak of the COVID pandemic.
Zuckerberg's Regret
The company shares, which had managed to climb back to some level of normalcy in the previous quarters, had managed to reinforce themselves at Wall Street.
However, the tech giant has made it back to the headlines. And this time again, it would be marked as a controversy.
In a statement released, the company said that it 'regrets' its decision to acquiesce to the Biden administration's demands of censorship.
The markets reacted to the development, as the company shares ended in red.
In the statement, the company said, "In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressed your team for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humour and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure."
Meta Shares Drop
The company shares have declined by 1.62 per cent or USD 8.54 in the past 5 trading sessions. On August 27, the company shares dropped by 0.39 per cent or USD 2.02, taking the overall value of the shares to USD 519.10 per share.
These developments come at a crucial juncture, as the United States is en route to a monumental election that could have historic consequences.
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US and Covid
This disclosure has promoted positive supporting statements from the Republican politicians, who have underscored the importance of the first amendment right of free speech. Meanwhile, the Biden administration defended its stance, saying its actions were in the light to prevent misinformation.
The United States saw major polarisation of policies and ideologies during the pandemic years, resulting in the country being split between those who "believed" in the pandemic and those who did not.
The United States saw a total of 111,820,082 cases. Amongst these, 1,219,487 lost their battle to the pandemic, dying of the virus-related complications. Many of them were unvaccinated.
