The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly had "significant input on pandemic-era social media policies" at Facebook and Instagram and worked to "silence dissent" related to the COVID vaccine.
Reason senior editor Robby Soave presented his findings in a lengthy thread similar to the ones that independent journalists have been routinely publishing about Twitter.
"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," Soave wrote to kick off the thread.
"The CDC had significant input on pandemic-era policies at Meta. The CDC was consulted frequently, at times daily, receiving constant updates about which topics were trending, and giving recommendations on what content to flag as false or misleading," Soave added to accompany a link to his Reason article.
Soave reported that "a trove of confidential documents obtained by Reason" indicate CDC health advisers were actively engaged with Facebook honchos. Many of the documents were published by Soave in a separate report offering an "inside look" at the emails revealing the CDC’s role.
"They were consulted frequently, at times daily. They were actively involved in the affairs of content moderators, providing constant and ever-evolving guidance. They requested frequent updates about which topics were trending on the platforms, and they recommended what kinds of content should be deemed false or misleading," Soave wrote. "These Facebook Files show that the platform responded with incredible deference. Facebook routinely asked the government to vet specific claims, including whether the virus was ‘man-made’ rather than zoonotic in origin."
Soave noted that the CDC told Facebook it was "extremely unlikely," but "technically possible" that the virus was man made. Facebook also reportedly asked the CDC is particular false claims could contribute to vaccine refusals.
NEW TWITTER FILES REVEAL PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY LOBBIED SOCIAL MEDIA OVER COVID VACCINE CONTENT
"Over the course of the pandemic, CDC officials exchanged dozens of messages with content moderators," Soave wrote.
"Facebook is a private entity, and thus is within its rights to moderate content in any fashion it sees fit. But the federal government's efforts to pressure social media companies cannot be waved away. A private company may choose to exclude certain perspectives, but if the company only takes such action after politicians and bureaucrats threaten it, reasonable people might conclude the choice was an illusion," he continued. "Such an arrangement—whereby private entities, at the behest of the government, become ideological enforcers—is unacceptable. And it may be illegal."
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, an outspoken critic of the COVID vaccine who was famously suspended by Twitter, was also on Facebook’s radar, according to Soave.
Facebook parent company Meta "gave the CDC de facto power to police COVID misinfo on the platforms; the CDC took the position that essentially any erroneous claim could contribute to vaccine hesitancy and cause social harm. This was a recipe for vast silencing, at the feds’ implicit behest," Soave wrote.
"The CDC was not the only arm of the federal government engaged in this work, of course: White House staffers castigated Meta for not deplatforming alleged misinformation fast enough. President Joe Biden himself accused Facebook of ‘killing people’ in July 2021," Soave wrote, referring to Biden’s widely mocked comment that went viral after a reporter asked him what his message was to "platforms like Facebook" on the subject of "COVID misinformation."
"They’re killing people," Biden responded. "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they’re killing people."
Elon Musk has been vocal about transparency when it comes to Twitter's past and present actions curating content on the platform, including censored content, and the information has been dubbed "The Twitter Files." The once-secret communications have sparked newfound intrigue about the behind-the-scenes decisions made at other social media juggernauts.
"It's clear the same forces were conspiring to silence dissent at Meta as well," Soave wrote.
When reached for comment, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone pointed Fox News Digital to tweets he sent in September.
"This is at least the third major news cycle about our work with the CDC to address harmful misinformation about COVID, and the least informative. We announced that we would be doing this in 2020, during the Trump Administration," Stone wrote in response to a previous report. "We defended the extent and efficacy of our efforts in 2021, when the Biden Administration publicly criticized us for not doing enough. The idea that it is news to anyone in 2022 that these interactions occurred is absurd. We have been public about them for, literally, years."
