{"id":1650165,"date":"2022-09-21T03:32:52","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650165"},"modified":"2022-09-21T03:33:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:33:58","slug":"biden-official-who-got-twitter-to-censor-alex-berenson-has-history-of-publishing-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-official-who-got-twitter-to-censor-alex-berenson-has-history-of-publishing-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Official Who Got Twitter To Censor Alex Berenson Has History Of Publishing Misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-official-who-got-twitter-to-censor-alex-berenson-has-history-of-publishing-misinformation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650165&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Pot, meet kettle. Those words accurately describe reactions to the recent publication of documents indicating that former Biden covid advisor Andy Slavitt worked to have writer Alex Berenson banned from Twitter last year.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Berenson <a href=\"https:\/\/alexberenson.substack.com\/p\/the-white-house-privately-demanded?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F12729762-alex-berenson&amp;utm_medium=reader2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published documents online<\/a> that he received from Twitter as part of his lawsuit against the company. Twitter settled the lawsuit by restoring Berenson\u2019s account, which it said the company should not have suspended in the first place. Among the documents Berenson released was this one:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The documents, from an internal Twitter Slack channel, reference a discussion between Twitter employees at the White House last April. At that time, Slavitt, who had been acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under Barack Obama, was serving in the Biden administration\u2019s covid task force. According to the Twitter Slack message, Slavitt pushed for action against Berenson, because the latter represented an \u201cepicenter of disinfo[rmation] that radiated outwards to the persuadable public\u201d regarding covid vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>I will let others comment on the legal issues presented by this case, and the documents in question\u2014whether Twitter violated its terms, and Berenson\u2019s legal rights, in suspending Berenson, and whether the apparent pressure from administration officials represented an unconstitutional attempt by government employees to coerce a private actor (i.e., Twitter) to engage in state-sponsored censorship. But when it comes to Slavitt, he is in no position to talk, or criticize others, on promulgating \u201cdisinfo.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Nonsense about Republican Legislation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Five years ago, Slavitt published a Twitter thread about Republicans\u2019 \u201crepeal-and-replace\u201d Obamacare legislation that started thusly:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"0mLGPwejaYAKq35iVoJXtypQICnS7lfxRB4rhNds16bgzF8Du\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: The Senate is quietly pushing a subtle change in the health care bill:<\/p>\n<p>not just to gut Medicaid, but to allow states to eliminate it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andy Slavitt \ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b (@ASlavitt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ASlavitt\/status\/881941502875881473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The entire thread sounded compelling\u2014but it didn\u2019t have any facts (or logic, for that matter). I outlined most of the policy details in a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2017\/07\/20\/andy-slavitt-doesnt-know-anything-medicaid-liar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piece at the time<\/a>, so won\u2019t belabor them here. The quick-and-dirty version:<\/p>\n<ol type=\"1\">\n<li>States can eliminate their Medicaid programs any time they like, because the Constitution forbids the federal government from commandeering states and telling them what to do.<\/li>\n<li>Because of No. 1, there wasn\u2019t any provision in the Republican bills allowing states to eliminate their Medicaid programs\u2014nor was there (or is there) a provision in law prohibiting states from eliminating these programs.<\/li>\n<li>The waiver process Slavitt referred to in his thread relates to the Obamacare exchanges, and had no bearing on the Medicaid program. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/FR-2015-12-16\/pdf\/2015-31563.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">document<\/a> <em>published while Slavitt headed CMS<\/em> demonstrated this fact.<\/li>\n<li>A mutual colleague and New York Times reporter <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170902024503\/https:\/twitter.com\/sangerkatz\/status\/881965962056142848\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">politely attempted<\/a> to point this out to Slavitt, but he bulldozed ahead anyway with his (false) accusations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>At best, Slavitt had absolutely no clue how the Medicaid program works\u2014meaning he never should have been appointed to run CMS in the Obama administration. At worst, he tried to derail legislation he didn\u2019t like by publishing an incoherent set of falsehoods.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Epicenter of Disinfo\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It therefore seems more than a bit rich for a Twitter employee to quote Slavitt as saying Berenson served as an \u201cepicenter of disinfo radiating outwards to the persuadable public\u201d with regards to covid vaccines. Slavitt took a very similar role upon leaving the Obama White House in January 2017, working to marshal public opposition to Republican \u201crepeal-and-replace\u201d legislation that spring and summer.<\/p>\n<p>In serving as one of the centers of the \u201cresistance\u201d to the Trump administration\u2019s agenda, Slavitt didn\u2019t just win <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2017\/05\/25\/andy-slavitt-aca-town-halls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more attention for himself<\/a>. The \u201crabble-rouser\u201d helped craft messaging points that others adopted in the media, in interactions with lawmakers, and so forth. In other words, when it comes to the above thread, he served as an \u201cepicenter of disinfo that radiated outwards to the persuadable public\u201d\u2014exactly the same charge he leveled against Berenson.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Slavitt\u2019s actions hold particular relevance to Twitter\u2019s policies. Those <a href=\"https:\/\/help.twitter.com\/en\/resources\/addressing-misleading-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">guidelines<\/a> say that Twitter relies on \u201cexternal, subject-matter experts\u201d to police misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>As a former head of the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid, an outside observer might consider Slavitt such a subject-matter expert on the Medicaid program. It is therefore worth asking whether Slavitt\u2019s posts received preferential treatment because of the prestige associated with his prior role, and notwithstanding their deviation from the facts.<\/p>\n<p>I reached out to a Twitter representative, to ask for more details about how the company determines its subject-matter experts, whether those individuals or entities are publicly identified, and what happens if and when those experts make false or misleading statements themselves. The representative did not respond to my requests for comment.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Congress Should Investigate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Likewise, I reached out to Slavitt\u2019s office, to ask if he wished to comment on his 2017 thread and more recent actions. His representative failed to acknowledge several requests for comment. However, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2022\/08\/alex-berenson-twitter-ban-lawsuit-covid-misinformation\/671219\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a> with The Atlantic shortly after the documents\u2019 release last month, Slavitt acknowledged meeting with representatives from Twitter during his time at the White House about disinformation, but claimed not to have raised Berenson specifically, with whom he said he only a vague familiarity.<\/p>\n<p>I also reached out to Berenson, to see if he had any comment about Slavitt\u2019s history of prior misleading tweets. He acknowledged my inquiry, but declined to comment, citing his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexBerenson\/status\/1558060844549902338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announcement<\/a> that he intends to take legal action against the Biden administration and Slavitt.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the potential for additional litigation, Congress should investigate the details of this matter itself. If Republicans take over one or both chambers of Congress, they should subpoena not just Twitter executives, but Slavitt as well. Perhaps then this former Biden administration official can explain, to Congress and the world, how and why someone who engaged in misinformation himself saw fit to weaponize Big Tech against others.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/chrisjacobshc\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>. Previously he was a senior health policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a senior policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center for Health Policy Studies, and a senior policy analyst with the Joint Economic Committee\u2019s Senate Republican staff. During the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Jacobs was a policy adviser for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman Mike Pence. In the first two years of the law\u2019s implementation, he was a health policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Jacobs got his start on Capitol Hill as an intern for then-Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and history from American University, where he is a part-time teacher of health policy. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pot, meet kettle. Those words accurately describe reactions to the recent publication of documents indicating that former Biden covid advisor Andy Slavitt worked to have writer Alex Berenson banned from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1650165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1650165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1650165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1650165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1650165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}