SIREN: Damning emails show deep collusion between Facebook and the Biden admin on 'vast censorship enterprise'

It’s been pretty difficult for us to shake this feeling that Facebook has enjoyed — and we do mean enjoyed — a very cozy relationship with the federal government. Probably because Facebook has enjoyed a very cozy relationship with the federal government. Especially under the Biden administration.

There’s a mutual respect there. How special! Look at how special this is:

🚨 According to newly released emails obtained by state AGs, Facebook & the Biden admin arranged weekly/monthly calls to discuss what to censor on the platform.https://t.co/m8UKZEBby9 pic.twitter.com/u2RRDwcwAU

— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) September 1, 2022

A bunch of other emails here, showing broad coordination on what content to censor https://t.co/7OdFO2N2NH

— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) September 1, 2022

So sweet of Facebook to get the CDC and Biden administration involved in the process of determining what constitutes misinformation and requires debunking.

🚨Omfg the Biden administration literally asked Meta if they would take down a Fauci parody account on Instagram pic.twitter.com/Lgnxo04po2

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 1, 2022

“Yes! On it!”

This is what Mark Zuckerberg wanted to get ahead of by going on Rogan and talking about the Hunter Biden laptop. https://t.co/KbXJWeL3mA

— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) September 1, 2022

Now we know why Zuckerberg made his admission on Rogan.

"The FBI made me do it…" https://t.co/hKWH073c9i

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) September 1, 2022

Huh.

Well well well https://t.co/NTXHAyHVVa

— Jay (@OneFineJay) September 1, 2022

Well.

Missouri Attorney General and GOP Senate candidate Eric Schmitt has a very interesting and very damning thread about this:

🚨In May, We filed a landmark lawsuit against top ranking Biden Admin. officials for colluding with social media companies to censor free speech. We have already received documents that show their cozy relationship, and now we’re demanding more. 🧵

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

In July of 2022, MO and LA served discovery requests and third-party subpoenas, demanding documents from top-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies over their alleged collusion to suppress freedom of speech.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

The Department of Justice is refusing to produce communications between the most senior officials and social media companies – yesterday we filed a joint petition asking the Court to compel them to produce those documents.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Here’s what we know so far. DOJ identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Beyond DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

This is a vast censorship enterprise, and the American people deserve to see the truth. Here are examples that already prove that federal officials and social media companies are coordinating on censorship, and we’re not close to being done yet:

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

A senior FB official sent an email to the Surgeon General stating, “I know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.” This email chain follows the SG’s “misinformation health advisory” in July 2021. pic.twitter.com/M4YuTC6vGa

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

The same senior official sent a later email to HHS and noted, "Thanks again for taking the time to meet earlier today." Then, the official continued to discuss how Facebook is taking even more steps to censor freedom of speech https://t.co/gYz2RtXlNF pic.twitter.com/c9FqgKVtBe

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Further communications show that Facebook is “increasing the strength of our demotions for COVID and vaccine-related content that third party fact checkers rate as ‘Partly False’ or ‘Missing Context.’

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

That content will now be demoted at the same strength that we demote any content on our platform rated ‘False.’”

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Twitter scheduled a meeting to debrief top White House Officials on “vaccine misinformation.” pic.twitter.com/KmYPMlCk8l

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

There are several instances where Facebook wouldn’t proceed with censoring freedom of speech on their platform until they had input, or a “debunking” from the CDC. Twitter followed the same course in at least one email. pic.twitter.com/9alXrgvq6P

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

The CDC also proposed a monthly debunking meeting with Facebook to help them censor free speech as well as regular “Be on the Lookout” calls with major social media outlets. pic.twitter.com/oSAjbxbT8b

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

A White House official was even concerned about parody Fauci accounts and coordinated with Facebook to take them down. pic.twitter.com/UJwn6z7BOy

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reached out to Twitter, Google, Meta, and Microsoft following the botched rollout of DHS’ Disinformation Governance Board: pic.twitter.com/b8oS0cjFj3

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

The Deputy Secretary at Treasury sought to connect with social media platforms and influence operations on social media. pic.twitter.com/MZ46VuUw5X

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

This is just the beginning. We’ve beat the Biden Administration in court in this case, and we plan to do it again.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Missouri and Louisiana will continue to fight to get to the bottom of this alleged collusion and expose the suppression of freedom of speech by social media giants at the behest of top-ranking government officials. https://t.co/HNU6mXsP6b

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022

Glad someone is trying to get to the bottom of this.

Our thoughts exactly. Those should be everyone’s thoughts, actually.

Oh this is nothing to worry about, Epsilons. Just your government actively working with large corporations to stomp on your First Amendment rights. https://t.co/zKjlUniMqF

— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) September 1, 2022

"BuT iT's A pRiVaTe CoMpAnY!"

Yes. A private company doing the dirty work the government can't constitutionally do itself. What's the fundamental difference if at the end of the day, the government has successfully censored you?

— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) September 1, 2022

Basically, Facebook is a private company willingly help the federal government censor free speech. So how private are they, really?

With the government involvement, is this not a violation of 1A rights? They can’t claim they are a private company now.

— David Petersen 🇺🇸 🦅🌎⚓️1A 2A (@DIPetersen) September 1, 2022

Not a legitimate one, anyway. Certainly not a trustworthy one.