We’ve learned so much from the Twitter Files — and all of it has been extremely disturbing at best. But it’s important to keep in mind that the Biden administration and Democrats didn’t just have designs on policing Twitter; they wanted control over all of social media. That means Meta, aka Facebook, and Meta’s private messaging app WhatsApp.
That’s right, the Biden administration wanted Meta to moderate content on a private messaging platform. David Zweig reveals what he stumbled across during his Twitter Files research:
The Biden White House pressured Meta to moderate "vaccine-skeptical" content on WhatsApp
This is fundamentally different from social media, since WhatsApp is used for private communication
My report, based on legal documents obtained through discovery https://t.co/yYXZQLCT00
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) March 24, 2023
There’s no Twitter thread as has become customary for the Twitter Files, so you’ll have to head over to Zweig’s Substack to get the full story (and the damning screenshots). But here’s a sneak preview:
As early as January 26, 2021, almost immediately after Biden took office, communications between the White House and Meta were underway regarding content moderation. Of specific concern was vaccine hesitancy and how Meta would combat this across its multiple platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. But amid the copious correspondence that I reviewed about those platforms, something jumped out at me: repeated queries about another Meta property, WhatsApp, a service designed for private messaging.
…
Questioning Meta executives about what actions could be taken on a service that people use specifically for private communications is a striking departure from other efforts.
In multiple emails, as early as March 2021, Rob Flaherty, the Biden White House’s Director of Digital Strategy, pressed Meta executives to tell him what interventions the company had taken on WhatsApp.
Flaherty wanted to know what they were doing to reduce harm on the messaging app. Seemingly dissatisfied with earlier explanations, on March 22, 2021, he wrote, “If you can’t see the message, I’m genuinely curious—how do you know what kinds of messages you’ve cut down on?”
As if it’s any of the White House’s business what people are privately messaging each other about. Guys, this is insane.
Sounds like they wanted a back door to essentially wire tape conversations that were represented as being completely private one-to-one or one-to- few channels, without any sort of due process. An egregious use of power and should be prosecuted as such.
— James Wilkinson (@NitroMH) March 24, 2023
The people screaming in all directions that others are a threat to democracy are proving to be the actual threat.
— Adam Davis (@AdamDavisNYC) March 24, 2023
This is so, so far over the censorship line, I am not even sure what to compare it to.
The Biden administration literally may be one of the most pro-censorship administration's in modern history. https://t.co/jRnEr4Sj8o
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) March 24, 2023
The “most pro-censorship administration in modern history” race appears to be one that the Biden administration is hellbent on winning.
There are many things wrong with this if true. Isn’t @WhatsApp supposed to be end to end encrypted for private conversations?
— Dave W (@dmwoof) March 24, 2023
Yes, it is. In the article I explain that Meta — with the exception of some blunt tools — was not able to do the granular moderation the WH official seemed to want
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) March 24, 2023
The exchanges about WhatsApp are arresting not because of what Meta ultimately did or did not do on the platform—since the company’s options for intervention appear to be limited—but because efforts to moderate content on a private messaging service was a continued interest for a White House official at all.
It’s only a small comfort to know that the Biden administration ultimately couldn’t get Meta to do what they wanted to do. Because the fact is, the administration was still asking. Pushing. They were encouraging censorship. Their goal was to conceal information from the public in order to preserve their preferred narrative.
And if that doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you, you’re doing it very, very wrong.
Liberals, this is fascism. You’re welcome.
— JSParker (@jsparker31) March 24, 2023
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Related:
David Zweig thread is ‘the latest and most disgraceful #TwitterFiles yet’ (on rigged Covid debate)
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