Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just released what he called “smoking-gun” evidence on how the Biden White House pressured Facebook into censoring Americans’ free speech. Unfortunately, the House Judiciary — which Jordan chairs — also just “scrapped” a Thursday meeting to consider holding Meta (Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress.
THE FACEBOOK FILES, PART 1: SMOKING-GUN DOCS PROVE FACEBOOK CENSORED AMERICANS BECAUSE OF BIDEN WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE
🧵 Thread:
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
“Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House,” Jordan tweeted on July 27.
The first half of 2021, Jordan’s tweet thread continued, brought “tremendous pressure from the Biden White House” for tech platforms to censor whatever the Biden administration considered to be “misinformation.” As an example, Jordan shared a screenshot of an email to Zuckerberg and then-Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, noting “continued pressure” from the White House.
In fact, Biden’s Senior Advisor Andy Slavitt was reportedly “outraged” that a certain post wasn’t removed by Facebook, according to an April 2021 email from Facebook’s now-president for global affairs Sir Nick Clegg. According to Jordan, the target of the interfering White House’s ire was… a meme. A meme about COVID-19 vaccines.
What did the Biden White House want removed?
A meme.
That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts. pic.twitter.com/6BhDxTHsUi
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
Clegg argued that the requested censorship would be a “significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the U.S.” Slavitt wasn’t concerned about the Constitution, though, Jordan said. It’s interesting that Clegg is now boasting about Meta’s election censorship efforts. I guess the Biden White House thoroughly conditioned Meta executives to be anti-free speech.
“What happened next? Facebook panicked,” Jordan tweeted.
But Facebook wanted to repair its relationship with the White House to avoid adverse action:
“Given what is at stake here, it would also be a good idea if we could regroup and take stock of where we are in our relations with the [White House], and our internal methods too.” pic.twitter.com/nLbYkf2quy
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
The Biden White House’s anger at the lack of content removal wasn’t a one-off. Indeed, it demanded to know why a certain Tucker Carlson video hadn’t been censored. So Clegg got together talking points that included the assurance Facebook “had demoted a video posted by Tucker Carlson by 50% in response to the White House’s demands, even though the post didn’t violate any policies.” That’s blatantly anti-constitutional censorship. Biden’s public condemnation of social media and increased government pressure only worsened the situation.
”On August 2, 2021, Facebook admitted it was going to change its policies because of pressure from the Biden White House,” Jordan noted. “‘Leadership asked Misinfo Policy . . . to brainstorm some additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against . . . misinformation. This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the [Biden] administration.’”
Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy joined the censorship campaign, spurring censorship of the so-called COVID “disinformation dozen.”
But it wasn't just the White House.
Facebook also changed its policies in direct response to pressure from Biden's Surgeon General, censoring members of the “disinformation dozen.” pic.twitter.com/FvGuoqUlns
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
“These documents, AND OTHERS that were just produced to the Committee, prove that the Biden Admin abused its powers to coerce Facebook into censoring Americans, preventing free and open discourse on issues of critical public importance,” Jordan concluded. He said Facebook produced the documents under threat of Zuckerberg being held in contempt.
As good as it is that Jordan is making this information public, I could wish he hadn’t backed off a vote to hold Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress (at least temporarily) after finally obtaining these documents. While Meta produced the desired documents (apparently the evidence Jordan tweeted), its long delays and years of harsh censorship seem to warrant more accountability.
After all, Facebook’s censorship of the Hunter Biden scandals, which Facebook did after FBI priming, could have swung the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor, according to a Media Research Center poll. And that doesn’t even address Zuckerberg’s infamous election funding “Zuckerbucks.” All-in-all, Zuckerberg is guilty of some pretty serious election interference.
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