Tipsheet

White House Used Misinformation From Foreign Activists to Target Townhall and Censor Americans

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 05, 2023 6:20 PM

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has been exposing how Big Tech colluded with the federal government to censor Americans for months with the release of the Facebook Files. The latest reveals involvement from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which also targeted Townhall.

Here is what we now know about CCDH, which targeted Townhall and other conservative accounts, including individuals and outlets alike. 

As it turns out, the Biden White House relied on foreign "disinfo" activists to pressure Facebook to censor Americans. Worse, it turns out the group supposedly targeting disinformation had their facts wrong. Facebook knew it, too.

According to the CCDH, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and 11 others, known as the "Disinformation Dozen," was supposedly responsible for 65 percent "of anti‑vaccine content circulating on social media platforms." That number was actually closer to 0.05 percent. 

Further, Facebook recognized these accounts as "completely benign." An internal Facebook email from April 7, 2021 admits that "[t]o really push farther than what we have already done would likely be out of the misinfo realm, since vaccine hesitancy is often or mostly not misinfo."

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Despite knowing better, the White House kept repeating such fake statistics. That includes then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, as she did during the July 15, 2021 press briefing, as just one example.

On March 24, 2021, the CCDH published its "Disinformation Dozen" report, which is still up on its website. 

Facebook was already preparing a draft memo to CEO Mark Zuckerberg by April 2021. The memo notes that they "continue to see pressure from partners and policymakers, including the White House, to remove entities that are seen to be contributing to large amount of vaccine misinformation content." The CCDH's report is noted in parenthesis, along with how they assert that the "disinformation dozen... are responsible for 73 percent of vaccine misinformation on Facebook."

There's also mention of how the Facebook employees discussed accounts did not violate policies and/or have "stopped posting vaccine misinformation." 

"We continue to monitor these entities on platform, and are reviewing the off platform activities as well, but do not believe we currently have a clear path for removal of these."

An internal email from July 16, 2021 also showed that Facebook was quite surprised to see the White House making use of such misinformation. "It seems like these data are now being used to guide major governmental policy decisions," the email noted. 

"If they are misleading or incorrect, that can be damaging to (our and their shared) efforts to arrive at productive and substantive solutions," the email aptly went on to note, "so I think critical we establish some shared understanding of truth."

However, the White House didn't just want posts from the "Disinformation Dozen" censored. They wanted everything censored, across all social media platforms. 

During a July 16, 2021 press briefing, Psaki said that, while mentioning "transparency" no less, that social media platforms should "measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform and the audience it’s reaching, also with the public, with all of you to create robust enforcement strategies that bridge their properties and provide transparency about rules." 

She made clear that "you shouldn’t be banned from one platform and not others if you--for providing misinformation out there."

Internal documents note that while the White House "wants cross-platform disables," the Facebook policy was to "only do cross-platform disables for child safety and dangerous organization violations." In directly referencing Psaki's comments from that July 16 press briefing, the document noted "[w]e do noy and should not ban ussrs from FB or IG because they've been banned by competitors." It's also noted that the practice they do have in place "has been a point of contention around the 'Disinfo Dozen...'"

The White House also demanded that Facebook remove all URL links to off-platform websites. One of the ideas, which the document noted was "not recommended" could be to "remove all posts from FB/IG if the posts contain a link to domains associated with covid misinfo violators," which had issues of its own, as it "would likely remove significant amounts of benign content posted by regular users, such as their posts about person experiences or government criticism that also include a link to a website."

The timing was quite noteworthy. "Facebook got the message loud and clear," Jordan's post noted. A July 15, 2021 email from Facebook leadership asked for a status update, "now if at all possible" on how the Disinformation Dozen was being censored.

As it turns out, Facebook had been censoring the Disinformation Dozen since March 2021, removing the @RobertKennedyJr Instagram account and taking "aggressive actions" against 11 of the 12 accounts by July. 

Documents also revealed that when it comes to accounts being monitored, "91 entities are tied to the Disinfo Dozen," though there's a "however" in there in that "the majority of these entities do not share anti-vax content and some post infrequently or stopped posting altogether." 

It was particularly ironic that 12th account "posts mainly about internet censorship now." Facebook noted "[w]e are watching his profile closely."

Facebook continued to monitor the accounts, even though a majority weren't even spreading misinformation.

Other accounts were also demoted if they were affiliated with Kennedy Jr.s' account.

Facebook's President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who has been referenced in previous Facebook File editions, had a meeting with the Surgeon General's Office on July 22, 2021. As internal emails from the day prior revealed, Facebook had a feeling "they are likely going to have Qs about the Disinfo Dozen and recent NewsGuard reports. 

Clegg asked Facebook employees on July 23, 2021 to report what actions they took against the Disinformation Dozen so as to be able to share with the Surgeon General's Office. 

When an employee was asked to "[p]lease take a look to see if it's persuasive or not," another employee responded, "I mean, nothing we say will be persuasive to that crew... but make sure it doesn't detract from the message."

Just a few days after that, on July 26, 2021, an email from someone in the Policy Comms department to Clegg and others stressed how "unrelenting" the Biden administration was on pressuring Facebook to censor Americans. Facebook was looking to defend themselves by showing what action they had taken. 

"Given the unrelenting staying power of the misleading stat that 12 people are responsible for 65% of COVID/vaccine misinformation - both in comments last week from President Biden on Monday to reporters and in Wednesday's night CNN Town Hall, as well as widespread coverage from reporters - we have drafted a newsroom post that pushes back with our own data and examples to rebut the external claims. The goal is to provide a single source of truth on the actions that we have taken on these accounts as well as contextualize what people are actually seeing on our platform," the email read with original emphasis. 

"There was a report out saying that for that--something like 45 percent of the overwhelming disinformation on Facebook comes from 12 individuals. I said: They’re killing people--those 12 individuals; that misinformation is going to kill people," Biden had claimed during that July 21, 2021 town hall, declaring it was "not a joke," despite how it involved misinformation. " And so, what we’re trying to do is use every avenue we can--public, private, government, non-government--to try to get the facts out, what they really are," he ironically added. 

In a matter of a few short weeks, Facebook's relationship got more difficult with the White House as a result. A message from August 3, uses the term "concerning" in speaking to a "perception/tough relationship with WH, which specifically wants us to demonstrate additional steps on four issues they've raised including more to address the disinfo dozen actors who are routinely cited in the press." 

Thus, Facebook felt the need to have their "solutions... mostly tailored around addressing" the dozen. They even had to forgo other long-term problems. 

Jordan had subpoenaed the CCDH last week with regards to documents he had requested early last month. They have until September 29 to comply. 

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