United States: Mark Zuckerberg confesses to having limited the distribution of the article on the laptop of Hunter Biden during the presidential election after a warning from the FBI

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told hit podcaster Joe Rogan this week that Facebook has restricted its News Feed from showing the New York Post article about President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his computer. portable. He did so after warnings from the FBI, but defended the agency as a “legitimate institution.”

Zuckerberg said in an episode of Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which went live Thursday, that the FBI contacted his company ahead of the 2020 presidential election to warn him to take notice of potentially polarizing. The warning came after Russia used social media platforms, including Facebook, to post content intended to be polarizing ahead of the 2016 election.

Mark Zuckerberg said he took the warning seriously. He said the social media platform hasn’t banned people from sharing the Post’s story, but has taken steps to limit how often the story appears on feeds.

The Post reported shortly before the 2020 election that the FBI obtained a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden as part of a federal investigation into him.

Former President Trump and some of his allies seized on the report at the time as showing evidence that Hunter was involved in questionable business dealings while his father was vice president. Some of the emails in the laptop have since been confirmed to be genuine, but no wrongdoing by the president or his son has been confirmed.

The Hunter Biden investigation reached a critical point last month as prosecutors weigh whether to press charges, according to CNN.

Mr Zuckerberg said he did not recall whether the FBI specifically mentioned the New York Post story in its warning.

He added that he doesn’t want Facebook to become the “ministry of truth” in deciding what counts as misinformation.

His defense of the FBI’s “legitimacy” comes as many conservatives criticized the agency for raiding Mr Trump’s property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida earlier this month. Some allies of Mr. Trump have called for cutting FBI funding as a result.

The Hill