The Biden administration said it is trying to censor so-called “misinformation” about COVID-19 online, then completely denied it four days later. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki changed her tune after only 96 hours.
CNSNews Senior Editor and White House Correspondent Melanie Arter asked Psaki about the Biden administration coordinating with Facebook to censor posts: “Will the White House publicly release information on the posts it considers misinformation on vaccines that it has asked Facebook to block?”
Psaki responded by flip-flopping on whether the White House planned to take down what it deemed to be misinformation about COVID-19 online.
The White House press secretary attempted to claim that the Biden administration has not asked Facebook to block posts. “First of all, we’ve not asked Facebook to block any individual posts,” she said. “The way this works is that there are trends that are out there on social media platforms. You’re aware of them. We’re aware of them. Anyone in the public can be aware of them.”
She went on to say that the decision of whether to censor free speech online lies with the platforms. “There’s also data that we look at that many media platforms like many of you also look at data in terms of trends, and you report on it, which is to be expected, given the number of people who get their information from social media. It’s up to social media platforms to determine what their application is of their own rules and regulations,” Psaki added. She continued: “So we’ve just certainly raised where we have concerns about information that’s inaccurate that is traveling out there in whatever platform it’s traveling on.”
Paski’s July 19 statements contradicted her July 15 statement. She said that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s office was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” She also said the administration has a four-point plan to restrict COVID-19 content it didn’t agree with.
Psaki made a similar statement concerning White House pressure on Big Tech on July 14. “[D]ecisions to regulate or hold to account any platform would certainly be a policy decision, but in the interim, we’re going to continue to call out disinformation and call out where that information travels,” she said.
Her different stories are duplicitous gaslighting at worst. The White House could encourage free speech online. Instead, it has continually changed its tune and endangered the free speech of Americans. Even if the administration has “not asked Facebook to block any individual posts,” as Psaki claimed, the fact remains that the Biden administration has no qualms about censoring the speech of its citizens.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.