Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
The right of every American to question and criticize their government is enshrined in the Bill of Rights in the First Amendment. Prohibiting dissenting views on any government institution or practice is strictly unconstitutional.
However, for the past few years many people have voiced concern about Big Tech platforms censoring dissenting views against the government, and the most common argument used by Big Tech is that they are simply a private platform that allows people to voice their views, and that the First Amendment does not apply to private corporations.
But now emails between the CDC and Google, Facebook, and Twitter have surfaced that suggest that the U.S. Government is, indeed, censoring dissenting views by influencing these Big Tech platforms, specifically in regards to the COVID-19 vaccines.
Given how deadly these experimental vaccines have been, this is a very serious matter, and I would expect more lawsuits filed in the weeks and months ahead for what appears to be a gross violation of the First Amendment and the right of American citizens to criticize and question their government, especially in regards to medical and health issues.
CDC Gave Big Tech Platforms Guidance On COVID Censorship
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave censorship ‘suggestions’ to social media companies and Google in order to censor users who expressed skepticism or criticism of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Washington Free Beacon, which obtained a trove of internal communications obtained by America First Legal.
The emails, between the CDC, Google, Twitter and Meta staffers – some of whom (as Just the News notes) were former Hill and White House aides – were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and show extensive cooperation which included thinly veiled threats for failing to more aggressively remove content.
Over the course of at least six months, starting in December 2020, CDC officials regularly communicated with personnel at Twitter, Facebook, and Google over “vaccine misinformation.” At various times, CDC officials would flag specific posts by users on social media platforms such as Twitter as “example posts.”
In one email to a CDC staffer, a Twitter employee said he is “looking forward to setting up regular chats” with the agency. Other emails show the scheduling of meetings with the CDC over how to best police alleged misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. -Free Beacon
In one April 2021 email between a CDC staffer and Facebook, concern was raised after “algorithms that Facebook and other social media networks are apparently using to screen out posting by sources of vaccine misinformation are also apparently screening out valid public health messaging, including [Wyoming] Health communications.”
Another email from March 2021 from a senior CDC staffer states: “we are working on [sic] project with Census to leverage their infrastructure to identify and monitor social media for vaccine misinformation.”
What’s more, one email chain reveals that a CDC official showed up at Google’s 2020 “Trusted Media Summit” conference, which was held for “journalists, fact-checkers, educators, researchers and others who work in the area of fact-checking, verification, media literacy, and otherwise fighting misinformation.”
When asked by an organizer if the senior CDC official would allow her remarks on YouTube, she declined, saying she was not authorized to speak publicly.
READ AT THE LINK
https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/cdc-gave-big-tech-platforms-guidance-on-covid-vaccine-censorship/
Photo: Health Impact News
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