 |
Emails paint a picture of a White House running roughshod over First Amendment protections.
Among the revelations in the so-called Twitter files was that government officials pressured social-media companies to censor posts unfavorable to the Biden administration. The White House has denied this, insisting that companies like Meta and Twitter adopted content-moderation policies on their own. But internal documents newly released by the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government prove that government pressure led Meta to go beyond what it otherwise would have in censoring user speech.
Court-ordered discovery in Missouri v. Biden has already revealed that the White House strong-armed platforms into more censorship than they considered justified—prompting the judge to declare that the administration had made “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” The new documents go further, showing that the administration drove much of Meta’s censorship.
In April 2021, Facebook (now Meta) executive Nick Clegg wrote to the company’s leaders, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg: “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more COVID-19 vaccine discouraging content” (emphasis in original). Mr. Clegg recounted a conversation he had with Andy Slavitt, then White House senior adviser for the Covid response. Mr. Clegg wrote that Mr. Slavitt was “outraged” that Facebook hadn’t taken down a meme, which joked that 10 years from now trial-lawyer commercials would be soliciting the vaccinated to seek damages. When Mr. Clegg protested that the administration was making “a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression,” Mr. Slavitt (according to Mr. Clegg) dismissed such First Amendment concerns on the ground that the objectionable meme “inhibits confidence in Covid vaccines.” This prompted Mr. Clegg to comment to his colleagues that “given what is at stake here,” the company should “regroup to take stock of where we are in our relations with the WH, and our internal methods too.”
Meta acquiesced to the administration’s pressure. An internal Aug. 2, 2021, email from a Facebook employee on the Trust and Safety Team noted: “Leadership asked Misinfo Policy and a couple of teams on Product Policy to brainstorm some additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against Covid and vaccine misinformation. This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the US administration and a desire to kick the tires further internally on creative options.”
An internal Meta email from a few weeks later confirms that the company increased its censorship under administration pressure. After discussing “our response to the Surgeon General on COVID-19 misinformation,” another employee on the Trust and Safety team wrote, “we agreed to further explore four discreet policy options for reducing the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation on our platforms.” Those policies targeted 12 individuals known as the “Disinformation Dozen” and were implemented on the platform shortly after the Aug. 2 email, resulting in removal of these accounts and many others. --->READ MORE HERE
Facebook removed content related to COVID-19 under pressure from the White House, including posts claiming the virus was man-made, according to internal company communications leaked to The Wall Street Journal.
“Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing — rather than demoting/labeling — claims that Covid is man made,” Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs, asked in a July 2021 email to colleagues.
According to the outlet, a Facebook vice president in charge of content policy responded: “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more,” referencing the Biden administration.
“We shouldn’t have done it,” the VP added.
The emails were exchanged around August 2021 — three months after Facebook reversed its ban on posts asserting COVID-19 was man-made.
The flip-flip came more than a year after the social-media giant banned a well-reasoned Post opinion column by China scholar Steven Mosher speculated about a potential lab leak. More than a year later, Mosher still hasn’t had his account reinstated.
Another email viewed by The Journal was circulated the month prior, after Biden accused platforms like Facebook of “killing people” by allowing so-called “misinformation” to propagate unchecked.
In July 2021, the Facebook VP circulated a memo assessing the difference between Facebook’s content policies and the Biden administration’s demands — some of which the Meta-owned company appeared ready to push back on.
“There is likely a significant gap between what the WH would like us to remove and what we are comfortable removing,” the Facebook executive wrote.
One request Facebook was ready to reject, the VP suggested: The White House’s desire that the company take action against humorous or satirical content that suggested the vaccines aren’t safe, according to The Journal. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
White House demanded Facebook censor vax meme, Tucker Carlson post: docs
Facebook Bowed to White House Pressure, Removed Covid Posts
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment