It seems like this should be a MUCH bigger deal than it is currently, but we've got a Meta executive admitting to congress that they take their marching orders from Biden and his White House.
This means that Facebook is acting as an enforcement arm for the government, censoring constitutionally protected speech.
This isn't a private company making private decisions. It's a company that gets its marching orders from the ruling party and dutifully squelched speech.
Government control of private companies. You know, literal fascism.
Hawley gives multiple examples of communications between Facebook and the CDC, HHS, and other government entities showing that the government gives marching orders to Meta about what they promote, what they downgrade, and even accounts they allow to stay up.
If you speak out against the government's preferred policy on Covid, they will get this "private company" to shut you down.
Doesn't sound so private, does it?
Hawley: You can confirm that things like taking down a private Instagram account, and adjusting your policies at the behest of the White House and putting into place misinformation policies at the behest of CDC, that those things, you think, are appropriate and it's company policy to do so?
(Meta Exec Chris Cox): Senator, I'm not familiar with the Instagram account specifically that you're referencing. But we do know that people expected and hoped, from the platforms, that we would help them get accurate information about Covid during the unprecedented time, especially at the beginning.
Hawley: Isn't there a difference between you, as a platform, putting forward information and censoring your users at the behest of the White House, the administration more broadly and the CDC? Isn't there a distinction there?
Cox: We specifically wanted to work with public health experts to understand the difference between information and behavior, and so we did consult with the CDC, World Health Organization, and others to understand how the platform policeis we built were effecting public health.
Just some doublespeak and, "Yeah, well, it was unprecedented and dangerous so of course, we took these actions and consulted with these agencies."
The point is that they took down accounts and posts because they didn't toe the line with the "official" message.
Hawley goes on:
Hawley: You didn't just consult with them to understand how they (Facebook policies) effected public health. You actually censored on their behalf. I mean, you took these emails – I'm just quoting from a sample of them which, by the way, have been disclosed in litigation. These emails show you took censorship steps. You took down accounts. You planned misinformation policies. You adjusted your policies at the behest of the United States government. I mean, that's not just some theoretical thing. That's actually targeting your user's speech
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You're saying you think that's fine and that's your policy.
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You're not concerned about any of this? Nothing that I've read to you is concerning at all?
Of course he's okay with it!
The Left is one giant monstrosity of a movement. "Private" companies, "science," government, academia – it's all one big monster, so they have to work together like this.
Hawley wraps up his questioning with a kill shot:
I'll just say this: The United States government is bound by the First Amendment. They cannot encourage, or coerce, or incite, or collude with a private party to get around the First Amendment that you've just said to me today that's basically what they did.
That you coordinated with them, repeatedly, over a pattern of months and years, to adjust and target your speech policies for protected speech at the behest of the United States government.
I've gotta tell you I've got a big problem with that and I think all your users should too.
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