{"id":1777115,"date":"2022-12-16T06:08:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T11:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1777115"},"modified":"2022-12-16T09:05:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T14:05:05","slug":"documents-uncover-secret-twitter-portal-u-s-government-used-to-censor-covid-19-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/documents-uncover-secret-twitter-portal-u-s-government-used-to-censor-covid-19-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Documents Uncover Secret Twitter Portal U.S. Government Used to Censor COVID-19 Content"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/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%2Fdocuments-uncover-secret-twitter-portal-u-s-government-used-to-censor-covid-19-content%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=1777115&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>New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the government\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n<p>In its ongoing probe into Twitter\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-censorship\">censorship<\/a> practices, America First Legal has obtained a fourth set of documents (<a href=\"https:\/\/ftp.aflegal.org\/foia\/HHS\/COVID%20Disinformation%20-%20CDC%20-%2021-01575-FOIA\/2022_12_06_CDC%20Production.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) exposing a secret Twitter portal, which U.S. government officials used to censor dissenting COVID-19 views in violation of the First Amendment.\u00a0It\u2019s a revelation <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1602984225254346752\">Elon Musk described<\/a> as \u201cextremely concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The documents reveal that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was collaborating with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and\u00a0Mafindo to mitigate \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-disinformation\">disinformation<\/a>.\u201d Mafindo is a\u00a0Facebook third-party <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/journalismproject\/mafindo-facebook-third-party-fact-checking\">fact-checking partner<\/a>\u00a0based in Indonesia that is funded by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idnfinancials.com\/archive\/news\/27589\/Google-donate-Rp-27-billion-for-anti-hoax-campaign\">Google,<\/a> known to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news18.com\/news\/tech\/google-doesnt-like-you-searching-for-coronavirus-apps-but-censorship-is-broken-2526573.html\">censored searches<\/a> for keywords like Coronavirus, and COVID-19 as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightworkresearch.com\/how-google-facebook-and-twitter-censored-accurate-information-on-covid-to-promote-the-vaccines\/\">blocking information<\/a> regarding adverse reactions and deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook started\u00a0its third-party fact-checking program in 2016, working with fact-checkers from around the world who are certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter to\u00a0<a id=\"u_0_c_Ui\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/help\/publisher\/182222309230722\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">rate and review<\/a>\u00a0the accuracy of the content on their platform. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org\/\">IFCN website<\/a>, they believe \u201cnonpartisan and transparent fact-checking can be a powerful instrument of accountability journalism.\u201d However, among their advisory board, U.S.-based representatives appear to be from liberal-leaning outlets such as the Washington Post and PolitiFact, which is owned by Poynter.<\/p>\n<h2>The Twitter Portal<\/h2>\n<p>On\u00a0March 10, 2021 email from a US Public Policy employee at Facebook to several CDC employees spoke of the social media giant\u2019s \u201cweekly sync with CDC\u201d and how the CDC was \u201cto invite other agencies as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A March 24, 2021 email from the same Facebook employees to CDC employees said \u201cthis is my regular FB meeting and they would like to discuss 2 misinformation topics\u201d and \u201cmisinformation that was removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 10, 2021, a Twitter employee recommended to a CDC official to enroll in Twitter\u2019s Partner Support Portal, which he described as \u201cthe best way to get a spreadsheet like this reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 11, 2021, the CDC official enrolled her personal Twitter account into Twitter\u2019s Partner Support Portal, which allowed \u201ca special, expedited reporting flow in the Twitter Help Center.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A May 19, 2021 Facebook Community Standards manual reveals how the company works with lawmakers and legal council as well as human rights activists in developing policies in their goals of \u201cbringing 50 million people a step closer to vaccinations\u201d while \u201ccombatting COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation\u201d and \u201covercoming global challenges in vaccination.\u201d Methods used to accomplish this included removing \u201cfalse information that has been debunked by public health experts\u201d and rejecting ads that violate their policies, \u201cincluding those that discourage vaccination.\u201d They also reduced the distribution of \u201cmisleading claims rated by independent fact-checkers.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Removed Content<\/h2>\n<p>Posts that Facebook would delete\u2014which the CDC or any other public health authority deemed as \u201cfalse and likely to contribute to imminent violence of physical harm\u201d\u2014included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Claims that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the common flu or cold.<\/li>\n<li>Claims that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted in certain climates, weather conditions, or locations.<\/li>\n<li>Claims that for the average person, something can guarantee prevention from getting COVID-19 or can guarantee recovery from COVID-19 before such a cure or prevention has been approved.<\/li>\n<li>Claims that COVID-19 tests cause cancer.<\/li>\n<li>Claims about the availability or existence of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/li>\n<li>Claims about the safety or serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/li>\n<li>Claims about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/li>\n<li>Claims about how the COVID-19 vaccine was developed or its ingredients.<\/li>\n<li>Claims involving conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines or vaccine programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Content deemed to have been \u201cdebunked\u201d included among other things, \u201cvaccines cause the disease against which they meant to protect, or cause the person to be more likely to get the disease,\u201d that \u201cnatural immunity is safer than vaccine acquired immunity,\u201d and\u00a0 \u201cvaccines are not effective to prevent the disease against what they purport to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Repeat offenders would face restrictions \u201cincluding (but not limited to) reduced distribution, removal from recommendations\u201d or removal from the site.<\/p>\n<p>These punishments were conducted despite evidence that the <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/33320052\/\">vaccines do not prevent transmission,<\/a>\u00a0that vaccines cause\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24624471\/\">adverse effects<\/a>\u00a0and even death, and that more vaccinated people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiercehealthcare.com\/payers\/more-vaccinated-unvaccinated-now-dying-covid-19\">are now dying<\/a>\u00a0than unvaccinated. Even the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/effectiveness\/why-measure-effectiveness\/breakthrough-cases.html\">CDC admitted<\/a>\u00a0in June that vaccinated people could contract the disease again.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018The Coolest Misinformation Fighting Speakeasy\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>In August 2021, the head of Google\u2019s News Lab for the Asia Pacific region (APAC), emailed a CDC Vaccine Confidence Strategist to invite her to the APAC\u2019s \u201cTrusted Media Summit.\u201d The CDC\u2019s vaccine confidence strategist then emailed the event planner for Google\u2019s APAC Trusted Media Summit, noting her excitement over being invited to what she referred to as \u201cthe coolest misinformation fighting speakeasy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same CDC employee was then invited to the summit to give a keynote addressing how the CDC was working with WHO and other international organizations to address a so-called \u201cinfodemic\u201d and using \u201csocial inoculation\u201d to mitigate it.<\/p>\n<p>An Oct. 28 email from a CDC to the Twitter team was regarding preliminary discussions on the CDC plans for communicating guidance regarding \u201cpediatric vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Nov. 2, 2021 email from a Facebook employee to multiple CDC employees was related to \u201cvaccine misinformation\u201d relative to the Emergency Use Authorization (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/regulatory-information\/search-fda-guidance-documents\/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-prevent-covid-19\">EUA<\/a>). The Facebook employee informed the CDC employees that they had \u201claunched a new feature in Instagram, where accounts that repeatedly post content that violates our policies on COVID-19 or vaccine misinformation may now lose the ability to be tagged or mentioned or may see pop-ups asking if they\u2019d like to delete certain posts that may violate our policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Facebook boasts of removing over 16 million posts on Facebook and Instagram, including over 2 million between February and May 2021.<\/p>\n<p>AFL\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/aflegal.org\/afl-lawsuit-reveals-damning-cdc-documents-proving-government-collusion-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech-and-promote-biden-administration-propaganda-2\/\">\u00a0first release<\/a>\u00a0of documents revealed the explicit collusion between the CDC and Big Tech to censor what the Biden administration deemed \u201cmisinformation\u201d and push covert COVID-19 propaganda. AFL\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aflegal.org\/afl-lawsuit-uncovers-more-audacious-cdc-documents-revealing-the-biden-administrations-blatant-complicity-with-big-tech-to-push-disinformation-and-suppress-and-censor-free-speech\/\">second release<\/a>\u00a0built the evidentiary record showing that CDC specifically sent Facebook and Twitter-specific posts to take down, throttle, censor, or flag. AFL\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aflegal.org\/breaking-afl-uncovers-documents-revealing-that-biden-admins-guidance-on-masking-children-in-school-was-driven-by-the-kaiser-foundations-political-polling\/\">third release<\/a>\u00a0revealed that the CDC\u2019s mask guidance policies for school children were driven by political polling by liberal dark money group The Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times reached out to Facebook for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-patricia-tolson\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Patricia-Tolson.jpg\" alt=\"Patricia Tolson\" \/><\/a>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bio\">Patricia Tolson, an award-winning national investigative reporter with 20 years of experience, has worked for such news outlets as Yahoo!, U.S. News, and The Tampa Free Press. With The Epoch Times, Patricia\u2019s in-depth investigative coverage of human interest stories, election policies, education, school boards, and parental rights has achieved international exposure. Send her your story ideas: <a class=\"linkified\" href=\"mailto:patricia.tolson@epochtimes.us\">patricia.tolson@epochtimes.us<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the government\u2019s narrative.In its ongoing probe into Twitter\u2019s censorship practices, America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1895072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Documents Uncover Secret Twitter Portal U.S. Government Used to Censor COVID-19 Content","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,7468,5589,3774,5407,5045,9515,3819,6323,4253,7238,7460],"class_list":["post-1777115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-censor","tag-content","tag-covid-19","tag-documents","tag-government","tag-portal","tag-report","tag-secret","tag-twitter","tag-u-s","tag-uncover"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Documents Uncover Secret Twitter Portal U.S. Government Used to Censor COVID-19 Content","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777115","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1777115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1895072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1777115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1777115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1777115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}