GOP releases files alleging Biden White House pressured Facebook to censor COVID posts.

The Biden White⁣ House Pressured Facebook‍ to Remove ​COVID-19 Posts

The Biden White House pressured Facebook executives to remove posts about⁤ COVID-19, including claims that the virus was man-made, according to internal company⁣ communication released by the House Judiciary Committee.

“Can ⁣someone ‍quickly remind me ​why we were removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man made,” asked Facebook’s president of global affairs Nick‍ Clegg in a July‍ 2021 email to colleagues obtained by​ the Wall Street Journal.

“We were under pressure ​from the administration and others to⁢ do ⁤more,” Facebook’s vice president of⁣ content policy responded, speaking of the Biden administration. “We shouldn’t have done it.”

The emails date to the spring and summer of 2021, when‍ the Biden administration ​launched ⁢its campaign to promote the COVID vaccine. Administration officials feared that “false information” on Facebook was dissuading people ​from getting the shot and pushed Facebook to “more aggressively police vaccine-related content,”⁢ according to the Journal.

“They’re killing people,” President⁢ Joe ⁢Biden said that July.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee acquired‍ the internal communications as part of an investigation into ​the Biden administration’s alleged efforts​ to censor social ‍media posts about COVID-19, vaccines, and other topics.

“These documents begin to reveal the pressure that ‍Facebook⁢ and other social-media companies were under to alter‌ their ‍content-moderation policies and remove protected speech ‍to appease the federal government, ⁢particularly ⁣the Biden White House,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chair⁤ of the House panel, said Thursday.

Three months before Clegg’s July 2021 email discussion, Facebook’s parent company‌ Meta said it would stop​ banning posts claiming the coronavirus was man-made or manufactured given the “increasing debate about the virus’s origin.”

“There‌ is ⁣likely a significant gap between what the [White House] would like us ⁣to remove and what we are comfortable removing,” the Facebook vice president said. The⁢ executive listed as an example the White House’s desire⁣ for Facebook to remove humorous‍ or satirical content about the vaccine’s side effects.

“The [White House] has previously​ indicated that it⁢ thinks humor should be removed if it ⁤is premised on the vaccine having side effects, so we expect it would similarly want ⁤to see humor⁢ about vaccine hesitancy removed,” the vice president wrote.

“I can’t see Mark in ⁣a million years being comfortable with‌ removing that—and I wouldn’t recommend it,” Clegg responded,⁢ an apparent reference to ‌CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In another July email to colleagues just before a meeting with the⁤ U.S. ‌surgeon general about⁤ vaccine misinformation, Clegg wrote: “My ⁤sense is that⁣ our current ‌course—in effect explaining ourselves more fully, ⁤but not shifting on where we draw the lines …‍ is a recipe for protracted and increasing acrimony.”

“Given the bigger‌ fish we have ‌to fry with the Administration—data flows etc.—that doesn’t seem a⁢ great⁣ place for us to be, so grateful for any further creative thinking on how⁣ we can be responsive to their concerns,” he said.

The White⁢ House said its discussions with ​Meta were “aimed‌ at promoting the adoption of vaccines and other⁤ public-health‌ goals,” according ‍to the Journal.

“In ⁢2021, in the darkest days of the pandemic, ⁢of course the Biden administration was working every possible angle to keep people ‌alive,” a spokesman ‍for Democrats on ⁢the House Judiciary Committee said in ⁢a statement.