Facebook admitted censorship of "true" data on COVID vaccines

Facebook admitted to have taken action against "often-true content" about COVID-19 vaccines in emails it sent to White House officials.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently released documents showing how a Facebook employee acknowledged having deleted and manipulated posts to prevent them from going viral.

Facebook staff admitted that on many occasions the content they deleted or suppressed was true. However, they decided to censor it because it could be framed "as sensation, alarmist, or shocking."

"We have been focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain actionable information. This is often-true content, which we allow at the post level because it is important for people to be able to discuss both their personal experiences and concerns about the vaccine." wrote the employee. The White House was allegedly in conversation with staff of Mark Zuckerberg's company about "reducing virality of vaccine hesitancy content."

Likewise, the staffer said it would remove groups, pages and accounts "disproportionately promoting this sensationalized content."

According to The Daily Signal, this email was exchanged on March 21, 2021 with Andrew Slavitt, then senior advisor to Joe Biden's COVID-19 response team, and Rob Flaherty, White House director of digital strategy.

The documents were released after Bailey obtained them as part of his court case regarding the president's alleged collusion with large social media companies "to violate Americans’ right to free speech under the First Amendment."

The House will also investigate White House's influence on Big Tech as part of Speaker Kevin McCarthy's attempts to track censorship.