As the Delta variant spread across the US in July 2021, Clark Humphrey, White House Covid-19 Response Spokesman, sent an email to two Facebook executives asking them to delete the Instagram account impersonating Anthony Fauci.
“Hi! How can we remove it? It's actually not one of ours,” Humphrey wrote. Less than a minute later, Facebook responded: “Yeah, go ahead!”
The account imitating the then Chief Medical Officer was duly deleted – much faster than if it had been reported through the standard Instagram feeds.
These emails are among those cached out of more than 15 000 raised by state attorneys in a lawsuit against US officials, including Joe Biden, to cut off contact between the White House and social media giants.
Last year, the Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general, along with a number of prominent vaccine campaigners, sued the White House seeking a ruling that the message violated US free speech laws.
Tuesday — Independence Day time could have been or not be a coincidence, a judge appointed by Donald Trump has issued a stunning injunction barring a long list of White House officials from engaging with social media to spread misinformation.
The order prohibits individuals, including US Secretary of Health Xavier Becerra, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, as well as dozens of other officials, from “compelling, encouraging, pressuring or inducing in any way the removal of , removal, suppression or reduction of protected free speech content posted on social media platforms.”
In a 155-page ruling, Judge Terry Doughty said the case “may be linked to the most massive attack on free speech in the history of the United States” and likened the administration's actions to the “Ministry of Truth,” the oppressive censorship agency in George Orwell's 1984. p>
Republican prosecutors have accused the Joe Biden administration of blocking social media users from exercising their right to free speech. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP
The Biden administration is likely to appeal the injunction, which is not final, and said it did not order the posts to be removed. However, this is a major victory for campaigners who have argued that democratic governments have overstepped their authority during the pandemic, including restrictions on free speech.
There is not a single piece of irrefutable evidence in the trove of e-mails received for legal inquiries. . Instead, they illustrate ongoing pressure from officials from various US government agencies to pressure YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook parent company Meta in particular to act faster and more aggressively on anti-vaccine posts, conspiracy theories, and anti-vaccination theories. lab leak.
Sir Nick Clegg, Meta's former vice premier and president of international affairs, has been directly involved in White House discussions, sending regular reports on the company's fight against disinformation and dismissing public statements by officials criticizing Meta.
During a phone conversation between Murthy and Sir Nick, the surgeon general asked Meta to do more to combat misinformation. In another email in 2021, Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on Covid-19, wrote to Sir Nick complaining about a post by Fox News host Tucker Carlson expressing skepticism about vaccines.
“Number one on Facebook. Sigh,” Slavitt wrote, according to legal documents. Sir Nick responded that the post didn't violate Facebook's rules, but that he was demoted so that fewer people would see him in news feeds. Rob Flaherty, director of digital strategy for the White House, responded: “The video has been shared 40,000 times. . . . How effective is that?”
He added, “Not in vain, but the last time we did this dance, it ended in rebellion,” referring to the attack on the Capitol on 6 January. In other emails, Sir Nick apologized for not responding quickly to posts that violated Facebook's policies, the documents say.
After Biden made the offhand remark accusing Facebook of “killing people” by allowing publications critical of the vaccine, Sir Nick wrote to Murthy, the chief surgeon. “It’s not good when you are accused of killing people,” he wrote. However, at the next meeting, Facebook agreed to “do more” to combat misinformation about Covid.Sir Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minister and Meta President for International Affairs, was directly involved in discussions at the White House. Photo: Kenzo Tribuillard. /AFP
Despite occasional opposition from Facebook, emails released as part of the lawsuit often showed White House officials berating social media companies, who responded with deference. “We think that in 'partnership' with you and your team, we can do much more to manage behavior,” one executive wrote.
Officials also actively encouraged Twitter and YouTube to remove content as ordered. In the early weeks of the administration, Flaherty emailed to request the deletion of a parody account associated with Biden's granddaughter, writing, “Please delete this account immediately.” After 45 minutes, he was gone.
Humphrey asked the company to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine tweet. Later that year, Christian Tom, deputy director of digital strategy, asked Twitter to remove a digitally altered video of Jill Biden that made it look like the First Lady was scolding children. Twitter initially said it was not violating its policy, but later removed the clip.
Meanwhile, YouTube was asked why it was “making people doubt” about the vaccine. The companies did not comment.
The White House denies forcing social media to take down content.
“We continue to believe that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to consider the impact their platforms have on the American people, while also making independent choices about the information they present,” the post reads.
But the lawsuit alleges that the conversations did not take place in a vacuum. They came as debate raged in Congress over whether to remove the Section 230 protections enjoyed by social media companies that limit liability for what their users post, and when the US government filed lawsuits against Facebook and Google. seeking to divide the companies.
Whatever the final outcome of the case, the plaintiffs may feel that they have already succeeded. The Disinformation Management Board, which was set up in April last year and sparked a lawsuit, was dissolved in August.
According to The Telegraph, the UK government has been forced to shut down its own disinformation unit, which it handed over to information to social media companies to encourage them to delete posts. And Elon Musk, the champion of conservative views, now owns Twitter.
Who ran the anti-disinformation unit
In his opinion, the judge quoted the words of the late Democratic President Harry Truman: there is only one way for him, and that is the way of increasingly repressive measures until he becomes a source of terror for all his citizens and creates a country in which everyone lives in fear. ”
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