White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki essentially admitted that the administration works with Facebook to censor posts that spread “misinformation.” Psaki answered a question from a White House Press Corps member relating to “misinformation” about the virus and the vaccine on social media.
The Press Secretary revealed that members of the administration communicate with Facebook regularly to combat the spread of misinformation. The term “misinformation” was not specifically defined at any point during the hour-long conference with Psaki and others. However, one can draw a circumstance-based inference that “misinformation” refers to anything that goes against what the US Government deems correct.
Psaki also mentioned that there are twelve people who produce 65% of the misinformation about COVID on Facebook. This is obviously a very specific statistic that has a source called the Center for Countering Digital Hate. It is interesting that the White House trusts this as a source when they appear to be a private company. Maybe it is because they have the same “agenda” as the White House.
The idea of the federal government interfering with the content that social media platforms allow is troubling. There is an obvious conflict and possible violation of the First Amendment. The Government should not be the grand arbiter of what “misinformation” is and isn’t. The White House has platforms to disseminate information they approve of. It should be beyond the scope of the federal government to remove all other sources of information. Aside from the Government having the tendency to be politicized, they are also fallible. Sometimes they are simply incorrect about things and other opinions are necessary to balance out wrong information.
SOURCES:
Psaki, Conservatives, and Facebook | National Review
Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows : NPR
Comments are closed.