By Congresswoman Stephanie Bice
Our government should not be in the business of censoring or manipulating content on social media platforms. However, under the Biden administration, such actions occur far too frequently. More specifically, Facebook and Twitter, before the takeover by Elon Musk, bowed down to pressure from the White House and changed algorithms and narratives to fit this administration’s agenda.
The newly released “Facebook Files” by the House Judiciary Committee revealed that the Biden administration successfully attempted to censor not just false information, but also true information regarding the coronavirus pandemic. The documents presented showed Facebook repeatedly confirmed to the Biden White House that it was working to re-engineer its platform to accomplish the administration’s directives on suppressing content that clashed with their stance on the COVID vaccines. In 2021, a meeting between then-White House Digital Director, Robert Flaherty, and Facebook took place in which the Biden staffer pressured the private company to moderate its content. Flaherty asked Facebook about “changing the algorithm” so that users saw more content from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal over other news sources that the administration called “polarizing”. This meeting also noted that the administration was concerned about “misinformation” on the platform that might cause Americans to be hesitant about getting vaccinated. That same year, Facebook’s head of Global Affairs asked why the platform has been censoring the COVID lab leak theory. The answer was clear: “Because we were under pressure from the administration… We shouldn’t have done it”.
Thanks to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, we also got firsthand information of the censorship that occurred on the platform. We learned Twitter suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story and of the existence of shadow banned accounts. Similar to Facebook, Twitter also cracked down on so-called misinformation as it relates to the coronavirus vaccine.
We cannot allow big tech platforms to censor information at will. This is why I sponsored the Disinformation Governance Board Prohibition Act, which terminates the Disinformation Government Board and prohibits federal funding for any entity that is similar in task and purpose. This legislation comes after public outcry in 2022, when the DHS announced the formation of the Disinformation Governance Board with the stated goal to curb misinformation and disinformation among the American public. In reality, the taxpayer funded board was used by the government as a partisan tool to undermine free speech and control the flow of information.
The right to free speech is enshrined in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights. This right is one of the bedrock principles of our nation and is essential to a functioning democracy. I will continue to push back against attempts to violate your constitutional rights.
