Facebook Removed Posts About COVID-19 Due to Pressure From White House: Emails

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Washington on Oct. 23, 2019. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Facebook censored content about COVID-19 possibly created by humans because of pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration, according to newly released emails.

Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, asked colleagues in one of the messages in July 2021 why Facebook was “removing - rather than demoting/labeling - claims that Covid is man made?”

“Because we were under pressure from the administration and others to do more,” another Facebook employee wrote.

Facebook removed multiple claims because so-called fact checkers labeled them false, even though Facebook did not assess the posts as causing harm, according to the employee.

“We stopped removing the man made claim in May and now we’re moving the other three claims (covid is new/patented) from remove to reduce and inform,” the employee added.

Meta, which owns Facebook, and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The emails were released by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, after the panel obtained them from Facebook.

The documents “reveal Facebook bowed to the Biden White House’s pressure to remove posts,” Mr. Jordan said in a statement.

Facebook announced in 2020 it would remove or limit posts offering certain views on COVID-19, including ones that allegedly contained “harmful misinformation about COVID-19.” That included posts claiming social distancing was ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, according to Facebook.

Some posts were left up but slapped with warning labels and not allowed to be spread at the normal rate.

In February 2021, Facebook added four specific claims to its list of those that would be removed, including that “COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured” and that vaccines “are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against.”

Later data has shown that vaccines provide little protection against COVID-19, with some data indicating the vaccinated are more likely to become infected.

The company said in a May 2021 update, “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured from our apps.”

“We’re continuing to work with health experts to keep pace with the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge,” the company also said.

The first COVID-19 cases were detected in Wuhan, China, in 2019. A laboratory there was experimenting on bat coronaviruses. Some experts believe the virus may have come from the lab, while others believe it came from animals.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 8, 2022. Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Pressure to Censor True Content

Administration officials repeatedly urged companies to censor content that allegedly promoted “vaccine hesitancy,” or would discourage people from receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines, documents released by plaintiffs in legal cases have shown.

The White House also wanted Facebook to remove “humorous or satirical content that suggests the vaccine isn’t safe,” according to another message made public by Mr. Jordan. That included a meme suggesting vaccinated people would be entitled to compensation in future years.

In another message, a Facebook employee said that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, an appointee of Mr. Biden, “wants us to remove true information about side effects if the user does not provide complete information about whether the side effect is rare and treatable.”

“We do not recommend pursuing this practice,” the employee said.

Instead, Facebook said it was allowing people to post about vaccine side effects but that if the content was “presented in a sensational or shocking way or promotes vaccine refusal,” the firm would demote the content and append a label with a link to “accurate, authoritative information.”

The employee said: “We believe the information push partially combats the incomplete information while giving users space to express their views and share their personal experiences.”

However, Facebook has completely removed some personal posts, according to a lawsuit filed against the government this year. Brianne Dressen, who was injured by AstraZeneca’s vaccine, saw her post featuring her discussing her experience taken down.

In a previous release, a Facebook staffer could be seen telling White House officials that Facebook was “focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain actionable information.”

“This is often-true content,” the employee wrote.

‘Increasing Acrimony’

While Facebook talked about resisting the White House pressure, Mr. Clegg conceded further actions might need to be taken.

“Sheryl is keen that we continue to explore some moves that we can make to show that we are trying to be responsive to the WH,” Mr. Clegg wrote in another message released on July 28, referring to Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

“My sense is that our current course—in ef­fect ex­plain­ing our­selves more fully, but not shift­ing on where we draw the lines … is a recipe for pro­tracted and in­creas­ing ac­ri­mony with the WH as the vaccine roll out continues to stutter through the fall and the winter,“ Mr. Clegg wrote. He asked for creative ideas for being ”responsive to their concerns.”

Facebook announced in the fall of 2021 that it was cracking down on people described by the White House as top disinformation spreaders. More than 26 pages associated with the people were removed, the company said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of the people. Now a Democrat presidential candidate, he recently merged his case with Missouri v. Biden, which has generated most of the documents showing the allegedly illegal government pressure campaign.