“Hundreds of pages of newly released emails that were obtained during the discovery phase of a lawsuit alleging censorship collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech platforms show Facebook updating its censorship policy based on feedback from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), White House officials flagging accounts for Facebook to censor, and more.
In one email, Facebook asked the CDC to confirm whether the claims it currently censors are false and updated its censorship policy after confirmation from the CDC.”
“On July 16, 2021, a senior Facebook official emailed US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy to tell him ‘our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.”
“Schmitt said these communications between Big Tech and the federal government show “a vast censorship enterprise” and that the documents “prove that federal officials and social media companies are coordinating on censorship.”
He also said that in total, the Department of Justice (DOJ) identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation. Additionally, Schmitt said that beyond the DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials, including White House officials, who communicated with them, YouTube identified 11 federal officials, including White House officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ. “