{"id":1985162,"date":"2023-07-28T14:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T18:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-posts-according-to-files-released-by-gop\/"},"modified":"2023-07-28T14:20:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T18:20:37","slug":"biden-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-posts-according-to-files-released-by-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-posts-according-to-files-released-by-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP releases files alleging Biden White House pressured Facebook to censor COVID posts."},"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\">26<\/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-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-posts-according-to-files-released-by-gop%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=1985162&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--><div>\n<h2>The Biden White\u2063 House Pressured Facebook\u200d to Remove \u200bCOVID-19 Posts<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Biden White House pressured Facebook executives to remove posts about\u2064 COVID-19, including claims that the virus was man-made, according to internal company\u2063 communication released by the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Can \u2063someone \u200dquickly remind me \u200bwhy we were removing\u2014rather than demoting\/labeling\u2014claims that Covid is man made,&#8221; asked Facebook&#8217;s president of global affairs Nick\u200d Clegg in a July\u200d 2021 email to colleagues <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-bowed-to-white-house-pressure-removed-covid-posts-2df436b7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">obtained<\/a> by\u200b the <i>Wall Street Journal<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were under pressure \u200bfrom the administration and others to\u2062 do \u2064more,&#8221; Facebook&#8217;s vice president of\u2063 content policy responded, speaking of the Biden administration. &#8220;We shouldn\u2019t have done it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The emails date to the spring and summer of 2021, when\u200d the Biden administration \u200blaunched \u2062its campaign to promote the COVID vaccine. Administration officials feared that &#8220;false information&#8221; on Facebook was dissuading people \u200bfrom getting the shot and pushed Facebook to &#8220;more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-posts-according-to-files-released-by-gop\/\" title=\"GOP releases files alleging Biden White House pressured Facebook to censor COVID posts.\">aggressively police vaccine-related content<\/a>,&#8221;\u2062 according to the <em>Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They\u2019re killing people,&#8221; President\u2062 Joe \u2062Biden said that July.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee acquired\u200d the internal communications as part of an investigation into \u200bthe Biden administration&#8217;s alleged efforts\u200b to censor social \u200dmedia posts about COVID-19, vaccines, and other topics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These documents begin to reveal the pressure that \u200dFacebook\u2062 and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/babylon-bee-censorship-shows-why-fifth-circuit-should-uphold-texas-social-media-law\/\" title=\"Babylon Bee Censorship Shows Why Fifth Circuit Should Uphold Texas\u2019 Social Media Law\">social-media companies<\/a> were under to alter\u200c their \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservative-twitter-accounts-explode-with-new-followers-increased-engagement-after-musk-announcement\/\" title=\"Conservative Twitter Accounts Explode With New Followers, Increased Engagement After Musk Announcement\">content-moderation policies<\/a> and remove protected speech \u200dto appease the federal government, \u2062particularly \u2063the Biden White House,&#8221; Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chair\u2064 of the House panel, said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Three months before Clegg&#8217;s July 2021 email discussion, Facebook&#8217;s parent company\u200c Meta said it would stop\u200b banning posts claiming the coronavirus was man-made or manufactured given the &#8220;increasing debate about the virus&#8217;s origin.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;There\u200c is \u2063likely a significant gap between what the [White House] would like us \u2063to remove and what we are comfortable removing,&#8221; the Facebook vice president said. The\u2062 executive listed as an example the White House&#8217;s desire\u2063 for Facebook to remove humorous\u200d or satirical content about the vaccine&#8217;s side effects.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The [White House] has previously\u200b indicated that it\u2062 thinks humor should be removed if it \u2064is premised on the vaccine having side effects, so we expect it would similarly want \u2064to see humor\u2062 about vaccine hesitancy removed,&#8221; the vice president wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can\u2019t see Mark in \u2063a million years being comfortable with\u200c removing that\u2014and I wouldn\u2019t recommend it,&#8221; Clegg responded,\u2062 an apparent reference to \u200cCEO Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n<p>In another July email to colleagues just before a meeting with the\u2064 U.S. \u200csurgeon general about\u2064 vaccine misinformation, Clegg wrote: &#8220;My \u2064sense is that\u2063 our current \u200ccourse\u2014in effect explaining ourselves more fully, \u2064but not shifting on where we draw the lines \u2026\u200d is a recipe for protracted and increasing acrimony.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Given the bigger\u200c fish we have \u200cto fry with the Administration\u2014data flows etc.\u2014that doesn\u2019t seem a\u2062 great\u2063 place for us to be, so grateful for any further creative thinking on how\u2063 we can be responsive to their concerns,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The White\u2062 House said its discussions with \u200bMeta were &#8220;aimed\u200c at promoting the adoption of vaccines and other\u2064 public-health\u200c goals,&#8221; according \u200dto the <em>Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In \u20622021, in the darkest days of the pandemic, \u2062of course the Biden administration was working every possible angle to keep people \u200calive,&#8221; a spokesman \u200dfor Democrats on \u2062the House Judiciary Committee said in \u2062a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Internal company communication released by the House Judiciary Committee reveals that the Biden White House exerted pressure on Facebook executives to delete COVID-19 posts, including those suggesting the virus was created by humans. Facebook&#8217;s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, questioned the decision, asking why they were removing such claims instead of demoting or labeling them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1262,"featured_media":1985163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1985162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985162","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\/1262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1985163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1985162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1985162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}