A new report by the House Judiciary Committee details an extensive effort by the Biden administration to silence dissenting speech.
“The report details the months-long campaign by the Biden White House to coerce large companies, namely Facebook, Google, and Amazon, to censor books, videos, posts, and other content online,” according to a press release.
“By the end of 2021, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon changed their content moderation policies in ways that were directly responsive to criticism from the Biden Administration,” the press release published Wednesday continues.
#BREAKING: Weaponization Committee Exposes the Biden White House Censorship Regime in New 800 Page Report
This interim report details the months-long campaign by the Biden White House to censor Americans on Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube.
Read it here: https://t.co/wz0jHtyTrc pic.twitter.com/cbf58RMhFa
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) May 1, 2024
These new policies led to the censoring of everything from alleged COVID-19 “misinformation” on social media to even certain books in Amazon’s marketplace.
“In March 2021, an Amazon employee emailed others within the company about the reason for the Amazon bookstore’s new content moderation policy change: ‘[T]he impetus for this request is criticism from the Biden Administration about sensitive books we’re giving prominent placement to,’” according to the report.
Similarly, when in 2021 a Facebook exec asked an employee why FB had censored the lab-leak theory, the employee reportedly responded, “Because we were under pressure from the [Biden] administration and others to do more.”
The Biden administration even targeted satire. An internal Facebook email from July 2021 shows that Facebook understood that the Biden administration wanted “negative information on or opinions about the vaccine” removed, in addition to “humorous or satirical content that suggests the vaccine isn’t safe.”
In making these requests, the Biden administration exploited leverage that it boasted as per other policy concerns, the report states.
In a July 2021 email, a Facebook exec admitted in an email that he thought that, “[g]iven the bigger fish we have to fry with the [Biden] Administration,” the social media platform should try to “be responsive to [the Administration’s] concerns.”
Similarly, in April of 2021, a YouTube public policy team emailed the company’s product team arguing that having the product team brief the White House would be “hugely beneficial” because YT was “seek[ing] to work closely with [the Biden] administration on multiple policy fronts.”
The YouTube Files: pic.twitter.com/8hYi4tI0HE
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) May 1, 2024
The release of this report comes a year after House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan subpoenaed Alphabet (which owns Google), Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Amazon, and Microsoft last year demanding access to their communications with the Biden administration.
The release of the report also comes weeks out from the Supreme Court deciding in Murthy v. Missouri whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to silence dissenting speech.
“[A] Supreme Court case about the Biden administration’s alleged coercion of social media platforms into certain kinds of content moderation decisions is pending a decision right now,” The Verge notes. “Murthy v. Missouri is all about where to draw the line between (entirely legal) persuasion from the government versus (illegal) coercion.”
“The central issue in Murthy is whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies — namely, by flagging posts that the government itself deemed as harmful (e.g., medical or election misinformation) and exerting pressure to remove them,” according to The Verge.
Republicans for their part say Biden’s censorship efforts have had a “devastating” effect.
“By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits,” the report reads. “Instead, policymakers implemented a series of public health measures that proved to be disastrous for the country.”
“From unnecessary extended school closures to unconstitutional vaccine mandates that forced workers to take a newly developed vaccine or risk losing their jobs, the Biden Administration and other officials needlessly imposed harm and suffering on Americans across the country,” the report continues.
All this comes months after a federal judge ruled on Independence Day that the Biden administration may no longer work with social media companies to censor content it dislikes.
Federal-judge bans Biden administration from working with social media companies to censor content it dislikes https://t.co/FoeUiHm8f0 pic.twitter.com/bmpXPEwern
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) July 7, 2023
In the ruling, Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty argued that during the COVID pandemic, the Biden administration established a veritable “Ministry of Truth” that “used its power to silence the opposition.”
As in “opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power,” the ruling reads.
In other words, the administration tried to silence anybody who disagreed with it.
“It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas if a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country,” the ruling continues.
“[T]he evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’” the ruling concludes.
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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