Judge orders top Biden officials, agencies to produce communications with Big Tech

A Louisiana district judge Tuesday ordered top-level agencies and officials in the Biden administration to produce all communications they have had with social media platforms about “misinformation, disinformation, or malinformation, and/or censorship or suppression of speech or social-media.” 

The “Government Defendants” named in the complaint include National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Census Bureau, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the U.S. Treasury Department, the FBI and key officials at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. 

“This Court believes Plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms,” wrote U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in the ruling. “Therefore, Government Defendants Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci shall provide answers to the Plaintiff’s interrogatories and document requests within twenty-one (21) days from the date of this order.” 

The lawsuit, brought by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, was based on previous complaints Schmitt brought successfully against the Biden administration. The communications produced from the discoveries recently revealed a “Censorship Enterprise” between the federal government and social media platforms, who have been working closely together to censor unapproved speech. 

But communications involving the highest officials and agencies have not been produced. 

“The Department of Justice is cowering behind executive privilege and has refused to turn over communications between the highest-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies,” Schmitt said in a statement last week announcing the suit. “That’s why, yesterday, we asked the Court to compel the Department of Justice to produce those records. We’re just getting started – stay tuned.” 

Beyond the communications produced by the DOJ, other revelations have come to light, as reported by America’s Frontline News. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, disclosed that at least 32 officials – including senior officials at the FDA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the White House were in communication with the social media giant about “content moderation.” Google-owned YouTube made similar disclosures.  

In one email to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on July 16, 2022, Facebook officials refer to a meeting between the social media company and HHS officials.  

“I know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.”  

That day, Biden had accused Big Tech of “killing people” for not doing enough to censor “misinformation”.  

In another series of emails, Facebook executives share the steps they’ve taken to make unapproved speech about COVID-19 “harder to find on our platform.” They also note that any content about COVID-19 that fact-checkers declare is “partly false” and “missing context," Facebook treats as completely false. The company also divulged that any user or “entity” simply connected to an “entity” de-platformed for wrong speech is deemed “non-recommendable".  

The emails also make reference to hunting “the disinfo dozen”.  

Another email shows an invitation to a Zoom meeting between Twitter executives and Rob Flaherty, Andrew Slavitt, and Kelsey Fitzpatrick, officials of the Executive Office of the President/White House Office (EOP/WHO). Flaherty states in the email that Twitter will brief the White House “on vaccine misinfo”.  

Other emails reveal that Twitter and Facebook executives asked CDC officials for help in debunking claims including criticism of injecting infants with the COVID-19 injections. The CDC was happy to oblige, deeming nearly every single claim false, often without explanation except “it is reasonable to assume these statements may lead to vaccine refusal.”  

“Thank you so much again, I can’t reiterate enough how helpful this is for us to remove these misinfo claims ASAP!” a Facebook executive gushed obsequiously.  

In other emails, the CDC and Facebook officials agree to have monthly meetings in addition to their weekly meetings to further help them debunk “misinformation”.  

Another email shows White House COVID-19 Response Team Digital Director Clarke Humphrey asking Facebook to remove a Fauci parody account.  

“Yep, on it!” the Facebook employee replied within minutes.