Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is on a roll. The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee once again served notice to Big Tech — this time to Zuckerberg’s Facebook — that the days of the Biden administration censoring Americans are over.
This time, Jordan released a Twitter thread modeled after Elon Musk’s explosive Twitter Files. These latest revelations show how Facebook systematically censored user content, many times due to White House pressure.
Musk even weighed in on the news of Jordan’s discoveries, tweeting that they were “extremely concerning!”
Jim Jordan unleashes ‘The Facebook Files’, alleges White House pressured social media censorship https://t.co/Rt7Gdvh305
— Yanky (@Yanky_Pollak) July 28, 2023
Jordan announced that the new documents “prove that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies” due to pressure from the Biden administration.
He further charged that in the first half of 2021, pressure poured in on social media platforms such as Facebook. The Biden White House twisted their arms to clamp down on so-called “misinformation.”
And many times, very little arm twisting was needed.
Much of the objectionable content, Jordan contended, was simply opinions that the Biden administration disapproved of. The kinds of opinions expressly protected by the First Amendment.
In April 2021, an email was circulated throughout Facebook from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. It claimed, “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House” to take down user posts.
Another post from the same month demonstrated the outrage from a Biden administration senior advisor over a meme.
The picture displayed actor Leonardo DiCaprio pointing to a TV. The screen contained the caption, “10 years from now you will be watching TV and hear… Did you or a loved one take the COVID vaccine? You may be entitled to…”
The White House apparently was none too keen on even humorous opposition to its vaccine mandates.
To Facebook’s rare credit, it responded to the pressure from Biden senior adviser Andy Slavitt by noting the First Amendment ramifications of censoring such a post.
This incident, Jordan explained, led to panic at the social media platform. To ward off negative consequences, by August 2021 the company announced a change in policies concerning “disinformation” due to White House pressure.
Jordan laid out further evidence of Washington’s suppression of free speech and promised more to come.
