Posted on 08/22/2021 4:58:12 AM PDT by EBH
The White House wants it as a "good will gesture."
The Biden administration continues to pressure Facebook to collaborate and help it achieve its goals, one of them being to counter COVID vaccine skepticism and get more people in the US vaccinated.
After Biden shockingly denounced Facebook and others as “killing people” because they are allegedly letting COVID misinformation run rampant on their platforms, that pressure now continues in media reports, like the one The Washington Post published, citing three anonymous administration sources.
According to them, The White House and Facebook have had a series of meetings whose aim was to get the social media giant to turn over massive amounts of user data to the government, apparently as a “good will gesture” – since there doesn’t seem to be any legal ground for such a request.
Instead, the “tense” meetings saw the administration’s COVID crew “begging” Facebook to give them access to data showing how many people on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp see content branded as coronavirus misinformation, how many are still undecided whether to get the jab, and also the efficiency of Facebook’s censorship algorithms, i.e., how many people still get to see content that it aims to block.
It’s not obvious why the officials quoted by the article thought Facebook was under obligation to do this, but they accused the company of “hiding, filibustering and deflecting” – while at the same time commending Google and Twitter for apparently being much more accommodating in similar meetings around the same subject.
Although it is clear that these meetings are initiated and the data sought by the government, the criticism of Facebook in this matter conflates the notions of government and the public, saying it was the latter that “needs to understand” the scale of COVID misinformation and how to “potentially” fight this real or perceived problem.
The data Facebook has collected from its billions of users is described as “singular” and so complex and fine-grained that it can reveal people’s behavior and position on issues – clearly this is where the belief that the data would show the Biden administration how many users are still undecided on the vaccine comes from.
“It’s not that they wouldn’t provide data. It’s that they wouldn’t provide meaningful data, and you end up with a lot of information that doesn’t necessarily have value,” Andy Slavitt, who represented The White House in the meetings, said.
Thats just scarey...
This isn’t, like, totalitarian, AT ALL.
The truth is “killing people”—therefore it must be banned!
Censorship destroys trust.
“Misinformation” is a moving target, what is taken as absolute and an inalterable fact today, may be skewered and disparaged tomorrow. Take, for example, the mythology that has built up about whether to wear a mask as some kind of talisman to ward off the evil coronavirus, or the mark of submission to the “betters” who chose to freely dispense “advice” that seems plausible, but has the potential for a great deal more mischief than now acknowledged.
Does that mean more door knockers?
The truth has been banned throughout history—totally normal for stupid apes that make mouth noises.
The government doesn’t want to know how many people are critical of the vaccine - it wants to know who they are.
Misinformation is anything that does not agree with the administration. Go ahead Facebook, become snitches, read some history and find out what has happened to snitches down through the ages. Google it 😂
The left despises the First Amendment, even more than the Second.
I find it very interesting that the government is so desperate to make sure everyone is vaccinated.
The government against its people
Didn’t Gene Wilder have something to say about that in Young Frankenstein? 😀🤗
Come and get me. I’ll burn my house down and take as many as I can with me.
Do they put the same pressure on Facebook to turn over records on the Taliban’s use of WhatsApp?
while at the same time commending Google and Twitter for apparently being much more accommodating in similar meetings around the same subject.
That’s because the First Amendment when properly exercised is the most dangerous weapon on the planet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.