Zuckerberg apologizes for ‘mistake’ of blocking Catholic content

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized Wednesday during his second day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees for the censoring of Catholic content.

Zuckerberg admitted in response to questioning from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington that Facebook “made a mistake” when it censored an advertisement for a theology degree at Franciscan University of Steubenville, according to Crux Now. Facebook erroneously rejected the advertisement as “excessively violent” and “sensational,” but Zuckerberg said that he did not believe that a few examples of undue censorship indicated that Facebook’s review system was biased.

“I wouldn’t extrapolate from a few examples to assume that the overall system is biased,” Zuckerberg said, according to Crux.

Zuckerberg’s apology for the censoring of the Catholic ad came on the heels of grilling from Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday with regard to Facebook’s censoring of conservative commentators and stories as well as the fact that Facebook blocked over 24 Catholic pages on the grounds that their content was “unsafe for the community.”

Facebook earned the ire of Catholics in 2017 when the social media site reportedly blocked 25 Catholic pages in English and Portuguese, according to Catholic News Agency. Facebook later apologized and said that a malfunction had caused the pages to be blocked. Other Catholic groups continued to report problems with the site, such as the delay of approval for one group’s fundraising content during the Christmas season.

Zuckerberg admitted over the course of the questioning that Silicon Valley, where Facebook is headquartered, is extremely liberal, but that he was devoted to “making sure that we do not have any bias,” according to Crux.

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