Below is my column in The Hill on the release of the “Facebook Files.” After years to refusing to release the files or answer questions on its work with the government over the censorship of its users, Facebook yielded after Congress threatened contempt sanctions. The files are chilling but familiar. They include the government’s insistence on the censoring of official and true information on the side effects of the Covid vaccines as well as the origin of the virus. At one point, Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs asked “Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man made.” The Vice President in charge of content policy responded, “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn’t have done it.”
Here is the column:
COVID-19, the flu and the common cold all walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “what is this? Some kind of sick joke?”
Indeed, it is one of the many COVID-19 jokes that raged on the internet during the pandemic. What citizens did not know is that the Biden administration was tracking the laugh lines for censorship, along with other views it found neither funny nor helpful.
The newly released “Facebook Files” revealed a concerted effort by the Biden administration to censor not just false information, but also true information, along with jokes that its functionaries simply found annoying.
Months ago, I testified before Congress on censorship after Elon Musk’s release of internal Twitter communications, also known as the Twitter Files. I warned that the government was engaging in “censorship by surrogate,” using corporate allies to do indirectly what it is legally prevented from doing directly.
Facebook had refused to open its own files on government censorship efforts. That came to an end when the House Judiciary Committee finally moved to hold Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress.
The resulting Facebook Files confirmed what many of us have suspected for years. Indeed, the emails proved to be a mirror image of what had occurred at Twitter — a massive effort by the government to pressure the company to censor its critics and other dissenting voices.
Facebook executives used similar language to lament the “overwhelming” effort of the government to censor citizens and its unwillingness to take “no” for an answer.
Over at Twitter, executives described a deluge of demands for censorship from federal officials at the FBI and other agencies. One official wrote that “[t]he FBI has some folks in the Baltimore field office and at HQ that are just doing keyword searches for violations. This is probably the 10th request I have dealt with in the last 5 days.”
In January 2020, Twitter’s then-director of policy and philanthropy, Carlos Monje Jr., expressed unease about the pressure coming from the FBI. “They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff),” he said.
One email from August 2022 sent “long lists of newspapers, tweets or YouTube videos” deemed to be voicing “anti-Ukraine narratives.” Even satirical and comedy sites were reportedly designated by the government for removal.
Now we know that Facebook executives were facing the same insatiable government desire for censorship. 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 actually a humorous meme shared by a user named Timothy McComas. It featured actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from the film “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” pointing at a TV with a beer and cigarette in hand. The caption read: “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…’”
Slavitt was not amused. More importantly, he was irate that others were amused. Hundreds of thousands of others.
He explained that McComas had to be censored because such humor “demonstrably inhibits confidence in COVID vaccines amongst those the Biden Administration is trying to reach.”
At the same time, the White House was targeting those with well-founded questions over the efficacy of masks, the relative protection of natural immunities and the harm posed to children in the pandemic measures. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote: “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House” to remove posts criticizing COVID-19 vaccines.
As at Twitter, the pressure on Facebook was unrelenting. Even with a massive censorship partnership in place, President Joe Biden continued to accuse Big Tech of “killing people” by not censoring more citizens. Many of those targets are now recognized as having raised valid objections, including on the origins of the virus in a Chinese lab.
An Aug. 2, 2021, Facebook email said that 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.”
Facebook officials began to object, but continued to ban users. In one email, a vice president balked that “the [White House] has previously indicated that it thinks humor should be removed if it is premised on the vaccine having side effects, so we expect it would similarly want to see humor about vaccine hesitancy removed.”
There was to be no allowance for humor or even true information that did not advance the government’s narrative. The House has uncovered a myriad of grants given to academic and private groups to blacklist and target those with opposing views, including the posting of true information.
There was an array of government agencies targeting citizens and groups for censorship. In another hearing, I testified on efforts by Jen Easterly, who leads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to extend her regulatory authority by declaring that “critical infrastructure” includes “our cognitive infrastructure,” in which she saw it as her role to build “resilience to misinformation and disinformation.”
The administration also demanded the removal of “malinformation” that is “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
Government-funded groups such as the Stanford Virality Project declared that even “true stories…could fuel hesitancy” over taking the vaccine or other measures. The Twitter files showed that this included “worrisome jokes.”
The Biden administration and its allies were right about one thing: Jokes can be deadly to a censorship system. For centuries, humor has been the effective way to expose the abusive and often ridiculous efforts of censorship.
So, in an effort to make the government’s censorship listing, here is one that might resonate with the administration and its hosts on social media:
A coronavirus walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve viruses here!”
The coronavirus replies, “Well, you’re not a very good host!”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law for George Washington University.
“Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote: ‘We are facing continued pressure . . .'”
And yet, they caved. Craven SOB’s.
All it would have taken to stop that censorship in its tracks, is one executive with a backbone. Pin a notice on Facebook. Then watch the rats scurry.
Perhaps it is easier to ‘lean in’ when you don’t have a backbone?
If a country cannot be a member of NATO during a war, then will NATO dissolve as soon as it goes to war?
NATO should of been disbanded the day after the USSR collapsed.
Had that happened, there would not been a war in the Ukraine going on now.
Facebook’s “work with the government over the censorship of its users . . .” (JT)
To borrow an expression:
Businesses are making the rope with which fascists will hang them, and the rest of us.
What is most troubling???? There will be NO Consequences! In fact look for more of this activity leading up to the 2024 elections in the US.
Robert Kyoung Hur has gone missing – I searched Google News by the treads below and set search ‘tools’ to past month & past year,
and Nothing. Aside from the cost of Investigations – Nothing, Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada, … ? It’s a Complete Black-Out – Totally Censorship.
Robert Kyoung Hur – Former United States Attorney for the District of Maryland
Try it yourself: Search Google News:
Robert Hur
Robert Hur Special Counsel
Robert Hur Special Counsel Investigation
Special Counsel Robert Hur
Robert Hur Trump
Robert Hur Special Counsel Trump
Robert Hur Special Counsel Investigation Trump
Special Counsel Robert Hur Trump
Robert Hur Biden
Robert Hur Special Counsel Biden
Robert Hur Special Counsel Investigation Biden
Special Counsel Robert Hur Biden
And less anyone is under the assumption that all the censorship on Twitter is finished, I will just say that a month ago I was banned for life from Twitter for posting that “Men cannot be women no matter how many dresses or how much lipstick they wear.” That biological fact was deemed “hateful speech” by the fascist patrol that still monitors Twitter.
I can understand why the government would like to stop information that would have had fewer people take the vaccine or to take other remedial efforts that may have stanched the progression of the virus, I DO NOT SUPPORT SUCH EFFORTS AND I THINK THEY WERE ILLEGAL UNDER THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PERPS SHOULD BE PUNISHED, having said that why do you think Biden, JOE CHINA BIDEN, insisted on banning discussion of the causes of the virus, i.e. the lab leak theory? Knowing how the virus started would not in any way hinder efforts to protect citizens from it’s effects, it would in no way cause the virus to multiply quicker or more devastatingly, no, the only reason JOE CHINA BIDEN’S team wanted to lie about and not let others discuss the lab leak was to protect CHINA. Banning the LAB LEAK THEORY did not protect Americans, it protected the CCP.
PS and OT, all of the countries that Biden was given in his VP portfolio were corrupt nations like China, Ukraine, Libya and Romania. All of these corrupt countries gave Hunter and Joe Biden money for future actions. Obama was a hands-on president, in control administrator and he had to have known about his VPs corruption, why would he have countenanced such action? If you us Occam’s Razor it would seem obvious that Obama had to have been in on the grift. Why would Obama put Joe in charge of these countries and not places like Ireland and Italy? Why would Obama have not stopped such actions? Why, and this is important, did Obama tell Biden “Joe, you don’t have to run for president” and then NOT endorse his own VP?
This is the tip of the iceberg.
What still possibly baffles me is the DC elite’s policy of finally declaring “they have the evidence”. Apparently this has to do with lawfare and lawsuits and defamation and other judicial intricacies, whereby we the people can know the truth years before those desperately wanting it outed seem satisfied enough to proclaim it.
Overall that doesn’t bode well for all of us.
one more change
Voting 1 day , in person, ID
https://www.wsj.com/articles/heed-jimmy-carter-on-the-danger-of-mail-in-voting-11586557667?st=8gw57zqvwuhb504&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
‘Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
I don’t care if you vote, I care if you cheat
Fascism is when government and business conspire for absolute control…like the USA…TODAY
Communism is when there is only government
We are living in a FASCIST state…and much of the Judiciary approves of this
THE ONLY solution is a cut 50% of federal spending…and move 75% of federal government out of DC to the Heartland
Term limit Judiciary, congress and president….12 years!
So, what are the consequences? None? Regarding the “joke” that Slavitt found so offensive about vaxx takers eventually being entitled to compensation, it is becoming more and more clear that it is no joke. Maybe that was the problem all along. The issue was never censoring mis, dis, or any other kind of false information. If I went on Facebook and said you could cure a virus by killing a chicken at full moon, I’m pretty sure they would leave it alone. The issue is and was censoring truth and thereby inducing people to take an experimental shot whose side effects were already known by the FDA in October 2020 (I have the FDA’s own document with the list which includes death, which unfortunately nobody wanted to see or hear about at the time). The question is, as with any coverup, who knew what, and when did they know it? And what happens now?
Your listing of these obvious facts-no longer allegations- is greatly appreciated. Anyone who fails to acknowledge the gravity of these authoritarian acts, performed by many government agencies-FBI, CIA,DOJ, Homeland Security, CDC, NIH, White House and likely more-would be well served to look back at the outcome of the bystanders and supporters of the Bolsheviks. These “supporters “ of the new authoritarian regime ultimately paid a huge price with a loss of their jobs, land, family, home or life.
A question arises about these authoritarian government bureaucrats, who have the authority to concoct any rule, no matter how ridiculous it is, yet suffer no consequence as a result of their actions. WHY CAN’T THESE BUREAUCRATS WHO VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION BE HELD PERSONALLY LIABLE AND MADE TO SUFFER CONSEQUENCES?
Illegitimate rulers do not like allow criticism. Too much to lose.
“Illegitimate rulers do not like allow criticism. Too much to lose.”
Like Ron DeSantis? He didn’t like criticism from Disney so he chose to punish them for it. What a totalitarian dictator he must be.
As I recall, the US Constitution bestows on Congress the responsibility to set penalties specifically for crimes like Treason. Sadly, the Founders neglected to specify and require the death penalty for elected public officials and government employees or those who act on their behalf who intentionally violate the Bill of Rights, especially Freedom of Speech.
We were just following orders, eh? We hung those people at Nuremberg.
National Socialist Democrat WOKE Party aka American NAZIS.
The Remedy is coming.
There was another statement by Clegg that is not mentioned here. It was to the effect that FB should acquiesce to Government demands because it has “other fish to fry” with the Government, such as help with “data flows” between the US and Europe. These Government “requests” come from within a power relationship where the Government can do great harm to the company through regulation, enforcement, or the withholding of contracts or assistance. They are implicitly coercive.
Can these communications supplement the record in Missouri v Biden now before the 5th Circuit?
The fact that Biden’s point spread isn’t in the cellar, and those who supported him or still do whom I speak to believe that the state of the nation and the world is just fine, points to the fact that those who should don’t give a rat’s ass. What ever will happen as a result…will. Deal with it.
What percent of biden supporters get any of this information, do you think ?
Five percent maybe ?
So, what do we do?! We are all living with the aftermath of the COVID lockdown and the repercussions are actually devastating. We see stores closed, children fearful and depressed, and the list goes on and on. What is really oppressive is that social media companies went willingly to the troth to drink the government’s dictates. Journalist too and if they didn’t, they were branded ‘crazy’. So were people – even experts — that didn’t agree with the government. Everything has become so political that people freely give up the ‘brains’ to the one line of thinking and most journalists did so because it was politics. Evidence doesn’t matter and those who have the courage to speak up, have to go into hiding for fear of the consequences of their courage. Has anyone found the historians writing about this — especially those with a left bent? They too seem to have gone quiet. History will not judge this time in our in our country well — if we still have a country that allows free speech! Party politics over the country, money over morality, children sacrificed to the will of WOKE. When will we wake up from this haze and reclaim our minds?! I do not know … is there hope?! Any optimism out there?!
I am still stubbornly optimistic but my wife is not. I’ve maintained from early on the Covid-19 fear mongering that literally millions of people lost their ability to critically think. Even now with facts clearly in the open now these same people still can’t recognize the truth especially the mainstream media. We shall see come November 2024 if enough voters come around. Hope springs eternal
Optimism? A energetic minority in the American colonies chose the revolution in 1775 and independence in 1776 and fought a war than ended in 1783. The people of France chose the guillotine in 1792 and ended up with Napoleon. A war between the states erupted in the United States in 1861 and ended with today’s equivelent of over 7 million Americans dead and with widow and orphan pension payments that ended in the year 2020. The people of Romania chose the firing squad in 1989. Surely, we live in a time bordering on tyranny which grows more troublsome every day. As Fedor Dostoevsky has written: “Tyranny is a habit. It has its own organic life. It develops finally into a disease. Blood and power intoxicate.” It develops finally into a disease. And this disease grows by the day. The results of the election of 2024 will define the future. One must hold in abeyance whatever optimism one might generate until one knows the results of that election and of the subsequent the actions of those elected. Only then will we know if optimism is warranted. Hopefully, the solutions from history recited above will not play out again. It took 70 years for the peoples of the former Soviet Union to throw off their Commuinist oppressors. If the Marxists who call themselves Democrats win in 2024, then how long might it take to undo the damage they have already done and the more damage they surely will do? The future potential hazards boggle the mind.
Well said WM. Well said indeed.
Thank you Skyraider1.
I agree, WM. I wish I didn’t, but I do. I wish I could go back in time and tell Plato the cynics won. Our great brains who instruct us they can lead us better than we lead ourselves, our demented despots who still manage to secure office with unbearable sanctimony, these clowns who make hypocrisy a virtue, they have all proved him wrong.
Diogenes: I agree with you as well. Troublesome times in which we live. I fear for the kids and the grandkids. What sort of country, should it even survive, will they inherit?
A country in which a Pablo Escobar could run for high office–and get elected. A country in which a Pol Pot would educate your children. A country in which MS-13 or al Qaeda would run no-go zones. A country in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would be headquartered in Beijing.
A country in which the Deep State picks the President, not the people. Aren’t censorship and selective prosecution how it’s done??
Swing voters need to get real. My prayers for your grandchildren, WM.
I would like to see Mr. Turley discuss the liability China has from creating corona and releasing it into the world. The damages are multi millions of dollars of lives loss and business is closed and seems to me that we have a case in the international court and if we prevail, we would own China
How about our own Governments involvement in the development and cover-up of this bioweapon. Then acting like the savior with a series of useless shots that killed and maimed more people?? Too this day they still insist on forcing people to be take a series of shots that have proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be dangerous and zero efficiency at stopping the virus.
Members of the administration can make a “concerted effort.” But the administration, by itself, cannot. It can make a persistent or determined effort, but not a concerted one. That takes two or more.
Thank you for that. I care, along with you, but no-one else seems to.