Employees at Facebook parent company Meta said it faced pressure from the White House to remove posts related to vaccines, internal communications obtained by a House committee show, suggesting the platform censored COVID-19 content at the behest of the Biden administration.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, released new documents Thursday in a thread on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, detailing messages among employees at Meta describing pressure from White House officials to remove specific posts from the platform.
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The files were released hours before the House Judiciary Committee was to vote on an amendment holding Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt for failing to provide documents related to censorship. Jordan stated that he was delaying the contempt vote for now, but said it was still on the table.
"We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press to remove more COVID-19 vaccine discouraging content," an employee said in an April 2021 email to Zuckerberg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg.
In another April 2021 email, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president for global affairs, informed his team at Facebook that Andy Slavitt, a Senior Advisor to President Biden, was “outraged . . . that [Facebook] did not remove” a particular post. pic.twitter.com/5muflAQjcx
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, also said that Andy Slavitt, Biden's senior adviser for the COVID-19 response, was "outraged" that Meta did not remove a post discouraging users from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
What did the Biden White House want removed?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
A meme.
That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts. pic.twitter.com/6BhDxTHsUi
Clegg "countered that removing content like that would represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US," but Slavitt claimed that the comparison "demonstrably inhibits confidence in those the Biden Administration is trying to reach."
Slavitt's pressure seemed to leave an impression, causing Brian Rice, Facebook's vice president of public policy, to argue that his remarks felt "very much like a crossroads for us in the White House in these early days."
The White House also expressed anger over Meta's decision not to remove a Tucker Carlson video, according to the documents.
In August 2021, one email said, Meta's leadership decided "to brainstorm some additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against ... misinformation. This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the [Biden] administration." This was in response to growing criticism from the White House over Meta's content moderation policies.
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Jordan has had his attention turned on Meta for several months. He subpoenaed Meta in mid-February alongside other companies about content moderation policies. He also sent a letter to Zuckerberg last week asking questions about Meta's latest product, Threads.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a hearing last week featuring 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on online censorship.