On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said that Meta “got things wrong” by censoring certain posts related to COVID but refused if the Biden White House did anything wrong by pressuring them to do so and stated that he’s only being asked if the White House did anything wrong “because of the political environment” we’re in.
Host Blake Burman asked, “Did the White House get this wrong, Mr. Attorney General?”
Ellison responded, “Well, Meta got a lot of things wrong. Meta needs to look at how its algorithms –.”
Burman then cut in to ask, “What about the White House?”
Ellison answered, “No, I heard what you said. Obviously, you’re asking me that for — because of the political environment, but if you want to talk about who got people — got things wrong, Meta got a lot of things wrong. It’s good they apologized for it. There’s more that they’ve done wrong. And we’re holding them accountable in the courtroom to try to get them to answer for all of the things that they’ve done that they should not have done, including manipulating their algorithms to — that have led kids to do and be involved in a lot of things that are extremely dangerous and unhealthy. So, did the White House get it wrong? Meta got it wrong. And I’m glad at least he has the decency to apologize for some of the things that he got wrong.”
Burman then read from the White House’s statement on the matter, noted that there wasn’t an apology in it, and asked, “Do you think that strikes the right tone from the White House?”
Ellison responded, “You should apologize when you do things wrong. What I heard from your story and from other reporting and from the complaint we filed against Meta is that they’ve done some things that they should not have done. Maybe they did some things in the eyes of the Judiciary Committee that they shouldn’t have done. Me and several other A.G.s, on a bipartisan basis, believe that they’ve done other things wrong…regarding how they manipulate their algorithms to entice more and get young people to engage in unhealthy behaviors. They might want to apologize for that, too. I hope that they do, and I think that would make things better if they did.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
