White House demanded Facebook censor vax meme, Tucker Carlson post: docs
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s White House aides pressured Facebook to censor a COVI𒈔D-19 vaccine meme and a post by Tucker Ca𓆏rlson, according to files released Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee.
The world’s largest social media platform pushed back and expressed concern about curbing free speech, but ultimately reduced the reach of Carlson’s post by 50%, according to back-channel communications released by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
In an April 2021 email, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president for global affairs, wrote to colleagues that Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to Biden who was steering COVID-19 policy, “was outraged — not too strong a word to describe his reaction — that [Facebook] did not remove this post.”
The post was a meme shared by a user named Timothy McComas that featured actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from the film “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” pointing at his TV with a beer and cigarette in hand.
The image was captioned: “10 years from now you will be watching TV and hear…. ‘Did you or a loved one take the covid vaccine? You may be entitled…'”
Clegg wrote that he “countered that removing content like that would represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US,” but failed to persuade Slavitt, who noted it had been shared 385,000 times.
The White House official “replied that the post was directly comparing Covid vaccines to asbestos poisoning in a way which demonstrably inhibits confidence in Covid vaccines amongst those the Biden Administration is trying to reach,” in Clegg’s words.
That same month, a Facebook employee whose name was not released by Jordan wrote to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg: “We are 𒀰facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including th♕e [Biden] White House” to remove posts criticizing COVID-19 vaccines.
Jordan wrote that the company “panicked” and agreed to take some action.
Facebook vice president for public policy Brian Rice wrote the same month that Slavitt’s pressure seemed “very much like a crossroads for us with the [Biden] White House in these early days.”
“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,” an unidentified Facebook employee replied, signing “N” — seeming to indicate the writer was Clegg.
“To appease the Biden White House, talking points were drafted for Clegg. Facebook was ready to tell the White House that it 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,” Jordan wrote.
The then-Fox News host’s video wasn’t identified or described in detail in files posted to Twitter by Jordan.
The video that came under scrutiny didn’t violate internal policies against “direct[ing] people not to get the vaccine” but the video nonetheless “is receiving 50% demotion for seven days as it is in the queue to be fact-checked,” the talking points read.
The emails imply that a different White House official, then-director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty, had raised Carlson’s video — by saying that the demotion information was in response to “Rob’s questions.”
The pressure continued to mount on Facebook to remove posts after April 2021 — with Biden saying that July that social media networks were “killing people” by allowing alleged misinformation to circulate.
An internal Aug. 2, 2021, Facebook email said the company’s 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.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden administration’s actions Thursday, saying “we have promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections.”
“We have consistently made clear that we believe social media companies have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects of their platforms that they have on the American people,” she added, “while making independent decisions about the content of their platforms.”
Missouri Solicitor General John Sauer, who worked on a legal case brought by his state and Louisiana over alleged government-requested censorship of social media, testified in March to the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the political “weaponization” of government that White House officials including Flaherty were key players in pushing companies to remove posts.
Sauer said evidence indicates that Flaherty led the pressure campaign and that “virtually everything that I can recall here was lawful First Amendment-protected speech that was being targeted.”
“The characterization of them as suggestions is contradicted by overwhelming evidence,” Sauer said. “To call Mr. Flaherty’s communication ‘suggestions’ is akin to saying that ꧃the Earth is flat or the moon is made of green cheese.”
Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki openly said in July 2021 that the White House was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” including about COVID-19 vaccines, for removal.
The government policing of alleged misinformation ultimately prompted pushback from civil libertarians when it emerged last spring that the Department of Homeland Security intended to create a “Disinformation Governance Board.”
The idea was ultimately shelved.
In October, the Intercept reported that Facebook had introduced a special portal through which federal officials made moderation requests, including to squelch “parody accounts or accounts with virtually no followers or influence.”
