Thank you!
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1616072212284379137.html
1. THREAD: THE FACEBOOK FILES
Twitter is not the only social media site to face pressure to censor content. I obtained emails showing that the CDC had significant influence over covid moderation at Facebook and Instagram. Here’s what I found.
3. For instance, in May 2021, CDC officials began routinely vetting claims about COVID-19 vaccines that had appeared on Facebook. The platform left it up to the federal government to determine which assertions were accurate.
4. Facebook’s moderator notes some of the above claims “would already be violating”—an implicit admission that the CDC’s opinion on the other claims would be a deciding factor in whether the platform would restrict such content.
5. Facebook was clearly a willing participant in this process; moderators repeatedly thanked the CDC for its “help in debunking.”
6. Claims vetted by the CDC included whether “COVID-19 is man-made.” The CDC told Facebook that it was “theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely.”
8. Then, in November, the FDA granted emergency authorization for children to receive Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. Meta proudly informed the CDC that it would remove false claims—”i.e. the COVID vaccine is not safe for kids”—from FB and Insta.
9. Meta also provided the CDC with a list of new claims about vaccines and asked whether the government thought they could “contribute to vaccine refusals.” The CDC determined that this label applied to all such claims.
[Much more at link]