The House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into allegations that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration colluded with Facebook to censor the American people.
As Slay News previously reported, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) published evidence showing Biden officials pressured Facebook to silence conservatives on the social media platform and to promote Democrat talking points from corporate media outlets.
Shortly after taking office in January 2021, the Biden admin started pressuring Facebook to stifle the reach of prominent conservatives on the platform.
The evidence published by Jordan is in the form of meeting notes that were recently turned over to Congress by Facebook’s parent company Meta.
According to a letter reported by the Washington Examiner, the House Judiciary Committee has now also launched an investigation into a leftist “misinformation” tracking group.
The group, the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), is also being sued by X Corp., formerly Twitter.
As Slay News reported earlier, Elon Musk’s X Corp. is accusing CCDH of running a campaign to “scare” advertisers away from Twitter over its free speech agenda.
Jordan has given the pro-censorship organization until August 17 to turn over records that could detail the extent of its ties to the Biden White House.
“We know from the Facebook Files that the Center for Countering Digital Hate was working with the White House to censor speech,” said a senior GOP congressional aide.
“But how far did it go?
“Republicans want to find out, and of course, subpoenas are on the table if we don’t get answers.”
Jordan’s letter, which was first obtained by the Washington Examiner, is the latest escalation of the GOP’s efforts to investigate how the federal government has, in some cases, coordinated with the private sector to flag certain speech, including speech related to COVID-19, as “disinformation” or “misinformation.”
The chairman has recently been publicizing subpoenaed documents from Facebook, now called Meta.
The documents show how the platform kept in close contact with the Biden admin on content moderation.
Further sets of emails were produced in connection to that subpoena, which have not been reported on until now and were shared with the Washington Examiner.
They shed light on CCDH’s influence among top Facebook staffers and the highest levels of government.
In April 2021, a Facebook employee cited the CCDH’s March 2021 report titled “The Disinformation Dozen” in an email thread dubbed “Vaccine policy.”
The email alleged that there “are twelve anti-vaxxers who play leading roles in spreading digital misinformation about COVID vaccines.”
One of the “anti-vaxxers” identified was presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We also continue to see pressure from partners and policymakers, including the White House, to remove entities that are seen to be contributing to a large amount of vaccine misinformation content (commonly referred to as the ‘disinformation dozen’ which CCDH asserts are responsible for 73% of vaccine misinformation on Facebook),” the employee’s email continues.
“We continue to monitor these entities on-platform, and are reviewing the off-platform as well, but do not believe we currently have a clear path for removal of these.”
In his letter to CCDH’s CEO, Imran Ahmed, Jordan writes: “We are interested in understanding the interactions between the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and the federal government in particular, as well as between CCDH and social media companies.”
“CCDH claims that ‘social media companies erode basic human rights and civil liberties by enabling the spread of online hate and disinformation,’” the letter adds.
On Thursday, Jordan dropped a Twitter thread full of evidence showing the Biden administration’s collusion with Facebook to suppress conservative speech.
THE FACEBOOK FILES PART 3.
Newly subpoenaed internal notes of meetings between Facebook executives and Biden Admin officials reveal more about the lengths the Biden White House wanted to go to control true speech on Facebook.
🧵 Thread: https://t.co/AeXrs1U8wr
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 3, 2023
“Since it’s a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn’t be able to?” said President Biden’s digital director, Rob Flaherty, according to internal Facebook communications.
Rob Flaherty, President Biden’s then-Director of Digital Strategy, repeatedly put pressure on Facebook to explain its content decisions.
“We have to explain to President, Ron, people, why there is misinfo on the internet…” pic.twitter.com/zUZYbKHfA9
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 3, 2023