{"id":559670,"date":"2021-06-10T16:06:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T20:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=559670"},"modified":"2021-06-10T16:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T20:22:05","slug":"house-gop-facebooks-zuckerberg-needs-to-surrender-communications-with-fauci-over-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-gop-facebooks-zuckerberg-needs-to-surrender-communications-with-fauci-over-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP: Facebook\u2019s Zuckerberg Needs to Surrender Communications With Fauci Over COVID-19"},"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\">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%2Fhouse-gop-facebooks-zuckerberg-needs-to-surrender-communications-with-fauci-over-covid-19%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=559670&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>House\u00a0Republicans sent a demand letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-facebook\">Facebook<\/a> CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-mark-zuckerberg\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> asking that he surrender any communications the social media giant has had with Dr.\u00a0Anthony Fauci and other federal officials regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.) cited recently released emails from Fauci, the head of the\u00a0National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), that suggested Zuckerberg personally \u201ccommunicated with [Fauci] about the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn light of Facebook\u2019s subsequent censorship of certain COVID-19 content\u2014including content about the pandemic\u2019s origin\u2014these communications with Dr. Fauci raise the prospect that the federal government-induced Facebook to censor certain speech in violation of the First Amendment,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past year in the midst of the pandemic, Facebook has moved to block content suggesting that the CCP (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/giving-the-right-name-to-the-virus-causing-a-worldwide-pandemic-2_3277200.html\">Chinese Communist Party<\/a>) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, may have originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan\u2019s and Comer\u2019s letter further stipulated that Facebook hand over\u00a0\u201call documents and communications between or among Facebook employees and U.S. government employees,\u201d which includes Fauci, regarding the virus, treatment, and its origins. Documents regarding Facebook\u2019s policies about COVID-19 content moderation should also be surrendered, the representatives added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also appears that you shared some of Facebook\u2019s confidential trade or commercial secrets with Dr. Fauci, as portions of your email exchange with Dr. Fauci were redacted when made publicly available,\u201d their letter said.<\/p>\n<p>Zuckerberg had sent a personal <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/The_Justice7\/status\/1400115520062607360\">email to Fauci on March 15, 2020<\/a>, where the Facebook CEO said that \u201cthis isn\u2019t public yet, but we\u2019re building a coronavirus information hub that we\u2019re going to put at the top of Facebook for everyone to see\u201d to \u201cmake sure that people can get authoritative information\u201d and \u201cpractice social distancing.\u201d The email also asked Fauci to do a question-and-answer session for Facebook, among other requests.<\/p>\n<p>Another mid-March 2020 email, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/The_Justice7\/status\/1400115520062607360\/photo\/2\">titled<\/a>, \u201cOffer from Mark Zuckerberg,\u201d included Fauci\u2019s response about Zuckerberg having asked him to \u201cdo videos\u201d on the pandemic. Fauci responded by saying: \u201cI will write or call Mark to tell him I am interested in doing this.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, Fauci, who has given hundreds of interviews to news outlets since the pandemic started early last year, has faced significant criticism from Republicans and former White House officials, who claimed he gave misleading information\u2014or said he flat-out lied\u2014about the hypotheses about the CCP virus\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3838598\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/05\/31\/GettyImages-1215439282-1200x675.jpeg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"  style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3838598\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1215439282-600x338-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, in China\u2019s central Hubei Province, on May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology,\u201d said EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s\u00a0Peter Daszak to Fauci in an email on April 19, 2020.\u00a0Daszak, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/mkt_app\/us-scientist-that-condemned-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-admits-he-was-shielding-chinese-scientists_3662614.html\">staunch opponent of the theory<\/a> that the virus escaped the Wuhan lab, also told the NIAID chief that \u201cyour comments are brave, and coming from your trusted voice, will help dispel the myths being spun around the virus\u2019s origins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fauci responded by saying:\u00a0\u201cMany thanks for your kind note.\u201d According to the email trove that was published, Fauci a day before told\u00a0George Gao, head of China\u2019s CDC: \u201cWe will get through this together. Thank you for your kind note. All is well despite some crazy people in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a series of media interviews this month, Fauci said that those emails have been \u201ctaken out of context\u201d and defended grants worth hundreds of thousands of dollars being given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Wuhan lab is a very large lab, to the tune of hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars\u2014the grant that we\u2019re talking about was $600,000 over five years,\u201d Fauci told NewsNow last week.<\/p>\n<p>But on Wednesday during an MSNBC interview, Fauci went a step further following recent criticism from GOP lawmakers, who called on him to step down from the NIAID position he\u2019s held since 1984.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to get at me as a public health official and scientist, you\u2019re not only attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, you\u2019re attacking science,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook and NIAID haven\u2019t returned requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House\u00a0Republicans sent a demand letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking that he surrender any communications the social media giant has had with Dr.\u00a0Anthony Fauci and other federal officials regarding &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2279918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/05\/31\/GettyImages-1215439282-1200x675.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"House GOP: Facebook\u2019s Zuckerberg Needs to Surrender Communications With Fauci Over COVID-19","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/05\/31\/GettyImages-1215439282-1200x675.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"House GOP: Facebook\u2019s Zuckerberg Needs to Surrender Communications With Fauci Over COVID-19","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559670","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}