White House Is Flagging ‘Problematic’ Facebook Posts for Facebook to Take Down

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that the White House is not only working with Facebook to flag disinformation on vaccines — it’s also asking Facebook to share data on the reach and engagement of posts deemed disinformation.

“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” the White House press secretary said.

Senior Biden administration staff and members of the COVID-19 team are targeting misinformation, specifically on coronavirus vaccines and the pandemic, by keeping “in regular touch” with social media platforms, Psaki said Thursday. 

The Biden administration is telling Facebook which posts it regards as "problematic" so that Facebook can remove them.

This is the union of corporate and state power — one of the classic hallmarks of fascism — that the people who spent 5 years babbling about fascism support. https://t.co/U2Ee3DgXJe

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

If you don't find it deeply disturbing that the White House is "flagging" internet content that they deem "problematic" to their Facebook allies for removal, then you are definitionally an authoritarian. No other information is needed about you to know that.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

Has the Biden WH also begun identifying books carried by Amazon that it regards as "problematic" and instructed Amazon to take them down and stop selling them immediately?

What's the difference between that and what it's doing with FB? What % of liberals would also support that?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

The White House is admitting that they're compiling lists of people who they claim are posting content they regard as "problematic" and that constitute "misinformation" and are demanding Facebook remove them. This is authoritarianism:https://t.co/gxrdUDblyS

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

As I've documented before, the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment's free speech guarantee is violated when government officials pressure or coerce private actors to censor for them. That is exactly what the Biden WH is doing with Facebook:https://t.co/KBMZpFiSzL

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

Has the Biden WH also begun identifying books carried by Amazon that it regards as "problematic" and instructed Amazon to take them down and stop selling them immediately?

What's the difference between that and what it's doing with FB? What % of liberals would also support that?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

American liberalism — especially after the Trump era when it re-aligned with CIA, FBI and neocons — is an absolutely authoritarian faction.

Their brains won't process that because they've spent 5 years telling each other Trump is the fascist, but their movement is a menace.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

The Biden administration has also proposed four key requests to social media platforms, Psaki said: the first, that social media platforms “measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform.”

“Facebook should provide, publicly and transparently, data on the reach of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, not just engagement, but the reach of the misinformation and the audience that it’s reaching,” Psaki said. “That will help us ensure we’re getting accurate information to people. This should be provided not just to researchers but to the public so that the public knows and understands what is accurate and inaccurate”

The Biden administration also wants platforms like Facebook to “create a robust enforcement strategy that bridges their properties and provides transparency about the rules,” to take “faster action against harmful posts,” and to promote “quality information sources in their feed algorithm.”

Wondering if @ACLU plans on weighing in at some point soon about the fact that the Biden WH today boasted it is flagging posts it regards as "problematic" and telling FB to take them down immediately. Seems like a relevant issue for them.https://t.co/KBMZpFiSzL pic.twitter.com/qbzGIErlmJ

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021

“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” Psaki said. “All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including Facebook, ones that Facebook owns.”

It is not immediately clear who the 12 individuals are.

Having spent all day reading liberals justify the Biden WH telling FB which posts to delete – in response to my critiques and @mtaibbi's – it essentially amounts to this:

They're censoring to protect us and keep us safe because they love us. They read Orwell as a how-to manual.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 16, 2021

“Facebook has repeatedly shown that they have the levers to promote quality information,” Psaki added. “We have seen them effectively do this in their algorithm over low quality information and they’ve chosen not to use it in this case and that is certainly an area that would have an impact.”

Source: The Daily Caller

Democrats have summoned tech executives to the Congress at least 4 times in the last year. The last time, they repeatedly and explicitly threatened regulatory and other legal punishment if they don't start censoring more: the content Dems regard as disinformation or "hate speech" https://t.co/2TV4mYCI2Z

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021