The Biden Administration Is Pushing Social Media Platforms To Expand Their Definition of Intolerable COVID-19 'Misinformation'

Reason ^ | August 10, 2021 | Jacob Sullum

[karpov]

A New York Times story about the "rift" between Facebook and the Biden administration regarding COVID-19 "misinformation" illustrates the fuzziness of that category and the perils of suppressing it at the government's behest. While administration officials often claim they are just encouraging the social media platform to enforce its own rules, their idea of misinformation is not necessarily the same as Facebook's, and that cleavage shows that the government is imposing online censorship by proxy, pushing to expand the definition of intolerable speech.

"We've engaged with Facebook since the transition on this issue," White House spokesman Mike Gwin tells the Times, "and we've made clear to them when they haven't lived up to our, or their own, standards and have actively elevated content on their platforms that misleads the American people." Since the Biden administration has the power to make life difficult for social media companies by pursuing litigation, writing regulations, and supporting new legislation, Facebook et al. have a strong incentive to follow the government's "standards" rather than its own.

"Facebook told White House officials that it grappled with content that wasn't explicitly false, such as posts that cast doubt about vaccines but don't clearly violate the social network's rules on health misinformation," the Times says. "Facebook allows people to express their experiences with vaccines, such as pain or side effects after receiving a shot, as long as they don't explicitly endorse falsehoods."

D.J. Patil, the chief technology officer for Biden's transition team, had no patience with that distinction. "Seriously?" Patil texted "the Biden team" during one video call. "We have to get past the talking points. People are literally dying." That conviction culminated in Biden's July 16 charge that Facebook et al. are "killing people" by failing to police speech the way he thinks they should.

[karpov]

Biden's henchmen wants to suppress information and anecdotes about the covid vaccines that don't fit their narrative. I have a more positive view of vaccines than many Freepers, but I will acknowledge that my 14yo daughter missed a day of school after her second Pfizer covid shot because she did not feel well. Now she is fine. I should be able to share such anecodotes on Facebook, regardless of whether the government thinks it "helpful".

[rktman]

Anything they put out is misinformation in my estimation. And it changes constantly.

[FlyingEagle]

Well. First of all. Did Rand Paul or any other republican say it. If yes, they ban it.

[BenLurkin]

“We’ve engaged with Facebook since the transition on this issue.”

Who talks like that?

[TheDon]

Censorship destroys trust.

[sauropod]

oh joy.

[AndyTheBear]

Censorship divides people into those that trust the censors and those who don’t...leaving nobody in a position to intelligently judge what is true.

[minnesota_bound]

If you post at Nextdoor.com you will get a popup anytime the chinese virus is mentioned. They wanting you to say covid and not wuhan or chinese. They let you post anyways BUT some Karen will delete the whole original post and all add’ll comments because they complained and the poof all free speech is gone.

[lapsus calami]