Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday saying his Facebook platform had been pressured by the federal government to remove certain COVID-19 content from its website.

In his letter, Zuckerberg told Republican Representative Jim Jordan: “The White House has repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content,” including satirical and humorous posts.

“I believe the government’s pressure was wrong and I regret that we did not speak more clearly about it,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg seemed to indicate that he had learned a lesson from the incident, saying Meta was “ready to fight back if something like this happens again.”

In 2020, Facebook and other companies agreed to combat COVID misinformation on their platforms. In 2021, the platform took steps to highlight known credible information about COVID vaccines from sources like the World Health Organization.

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A White House spokesperson told Scripps News: “In the face of a deadly pandemic, this administration has called for responsible action to protect public health and safety. Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe technology companies and other private actors should consider the impact of their actions on the American people while making independent decisions about the information they present.”

In late June, a Supreme Court ruling addressed the question of whether the federal government can contact social media companies about content moderation. The court ruled that the White House and other federal agencies can ask social platforms to remove content that the government deems misinformation or disinformation.