Biden admin. pressured Facebook to censor ‘bad content’
The House Judiciary Committee revealed documents this week that outline a June 2021 meeting where Biden’s former director of Digital Strategy told Facebook executives that censoring “bad content” was the administration’s “primary concern.”
These revelations, part of an ongoing investigation into the Biden administration’s content moderation efforts, shed light on a contentious relationship between the White House and social media giants, particularly Facebook.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) shared the “Facebook Files” on Twitter, writing, “Newly subpoenaed internal notes of meetings between Facebook executives and Biden Admin officials reveal more about the lengths the Biden White House wanted to go to control true speech on Facebook.”
Transcripts obtained by the Daily Caller indicate that the Biden administration preferred the censorship of information, while Facebook’s approach leaned more towards combatting what it deemed as misinformation with more information.
“You guys are much longer on inform, we’re much longer on reduce,” Flaherty told a Facebook executive during a meeting.
“What do you mean by that?” a Facebook executive asked.
“We’re keen on what platforms are doing to reduce the spread of bad information, that platforms are not funneling people towards bad content. That’s our primary concern,” Flaherty elaborated.
The House Judiciary Committee obtained the memos as part of the House’s in-depth investigation into the Biden administration’s social media censorship efforts.
Other documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveal the Biden administration’s role in pressuring Facebook to suppress content speculating that COVID-19 was man-made, a move that even caused regret within Facebook’s ranks.
A Facebook vice president responsible for content policy later expressed remorse, stating, “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn’t have done it.”
This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.
