Meta Platforms Inc META CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan on his Spotify Technology SA SPOT podcast that Facebook was reached by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation before the Hunter Biden laptop story broke.
What Happened: Zuckerberg said the FBI approached some members of Meta’s team and said they should be on “high alert” about a “dump” similar to 2016 Russian election misinformation.
The federal agency asked the company to “be vigilant,” according to Zuckerberg.
The Meta CEO told Rogan that the company’s “protocol” was different from Twitter Inc TWTR in cases such as the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“If we have something that is reported to us as potentially important misinformation we visited a third-party fact-checking program because we don’t want to be deciding what’s true or false.”
He said on the podcast, “The ranking in the newsfeed was a little bit less. So fewer people saw it than would've otherwise.”
See Also: How To Buy Meta (Formerly Facebook) Shares
Why It Matters: Facebook and Twitter came under fire in October 2020 for blocking a New York Post story that claimed Hunter Biden introduced his father President Joe Biden to a Ukrainian businessman while he was the Vice President during the Obama era.
The Post’s story was based on email and data allegedly extracted from Hunter Biden’s laptop left at a Delaware repair shop.
A lot of complaints came in about the suppression of the story involving Biden’s son, according to Zuckerberg, who termed it a “hyper-political issue.”
On how Meta was different from Twitter he said, “We weren't as black and white about it as Twitter. We just kind of thought hey look, if the FBI, which I still view as a legitimate institution in this country, it's a 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.
Price Action: On Thursday, Meta Platforms shares closed 3.4% higher at $168.78 in the regular session and fell 0.3% in extended trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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