Tipsheet

Biden Censorship Official Can't Answer Basic Questions About the First Amendment

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  May 01, 2024 3:30 PM

Testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Wednesday, former White House official Rob Flaherty was asked to explain the tenets of First Amendment. He couldn't do it. 

The testimony came just hours before the Committee released a lengthy report further detailing the Biden administration's censorship and big tech pressure campaigns to remove information from a number of online platforms. 

"Having obtained and reviewed tens of thousands of emails and other relevant nonpublic documents, the Committee and Select Subcommittee can provide a more complete picture of how and the extent to which the Biden White House coerced companies to suppress free speech," the report states. "Big Tech Changed Their Content Moderation Policies Because of Biden White House Pressure. The Biden White House pressure campaign largely succeeded in 2021. In the weeks and months following the start of the White House pressure campaign. Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon all changed their content moderation policies."

"The White House pressured companies to censor information that did not violate their content moderation policies at the time. The best evidence to assess why content moderation policies were changed is to review relevant email correspondence and other documents at the time of the policy change. Indeed, both Facebook and Amazon referred to the Biden White House’s efforts as 'pressure,'" the report continues. "The Biden White House’s Censorship Campaign Targeted True Information, Satire, and Other Content that Did Not Violate the Platforms’ Policies. Contrary to their claims of wanting to combat alleged so-called “misinformation” and foreign disinformation, the Biden Administration pressured the companies to censor true information, satire, memes, opinions, and Americans’ personal experiences."