Conservatives are worried about the Biden administration working directly with social media companies to stifle speech after the White House said Thursday that it’s in close communication with online platforms in an attempt to curb the spread of vaccine-related misinformation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday that the Biden administration is in “regular touch with the social media platforms” about misinformation and disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccine rollout and that it is “flagging problematic posts for Facebook.”
Conservatives fear the federal government is working with private businesses, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, to police speech in ways that it cannot do itself due to the First Amendment.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday that Psaki’s statements were an “alarming revelation of a public-private partnership to censor the speech of the American people” and added that her comments “raise further questions as to whether social media platforms like Facebook have functionally become arms of the federal government.”
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Some conservatives were particularly concerned about the federal government unduly influencing or controlling Facebook’s content moderation behavior because federal agencies are also currently engaged in lawsuits and investigations into Big Tech platforms such as Facebook and Google.
This could put unfair pressure on the companies to comply with the government directives regarding misinformation, they argue.
“THIS sets off my First Amendment alarm. Facebook is free to host or not host any speech it wants,” said Patrick Hedger, vice president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a right-leaning advocacy group.
“The government should NOT be doing this while simultaneously threatening the company in any number of ways, including active antitrust litigation,” he added on Twitter.
Former President Donald Trump, who has been banned from most major social media platforms, announced earlier this month that he was suing tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, for actively coordinating with the government to censor people unfairly.
Meanwhile, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned Thursday in his own advisory that health misinformation, which is primarily found online, is a “serious threat to public health” and that it was misleading people into not getting vaccinated from the coronavirus.
“It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative that will require a whole-of-society effort,” Murthy said.
Democrats, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, one of the leaders in the government effort to rein in Big Tech, praised the Biden administration’s much-needed efforts to tackle the “danger” of misinformation.
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However, conservatives, such as Libertarian former Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, said that although misinformation was a problem, it should be countered with more and better information, not censorship.
