Republican Attorneys General from Missouri and Louisiana hit the jackpot on Thursday when the litigation they filed against senior Biden administration officials in May — regarding the federal government's relationship with big tech companies — turned up emails and documents confirming some of their worst fears.
In a lengthy Twitter thread from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt — also the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate this November — outlined some of what the lawsuit produced and why it may only be the tip of the Biden-big tech collusion iceberg.
The result of discovery requests and third-party subpoenas, the documents obtained by the AGs showed that the official responses from the suit's Biden administration defendants omitted several relationships between big tech and other federal agencies such as the Census Bureau and Departments of Treasury and State.
According to a joint release from Schmitt and Louisiana AG Jeff Landry, they caught the Biden admin's apparent attempt to conceal additional relationships with big tech:
Meta, for example, has disclosed that at least 32 federal officials—including senior officials at the FDA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the White House—have communicated with Meta about content moderation on its platforms, many of whom were not disclosed in response to Plaintiffs’ interrogatories to Defendants. YouTube disclosed eleven federal officials engaged in such communications, including officials at the Census Bureau and the White House, many of whom were also not disclosed by Defendants.
Here's some of the smoking-gun communications proving the Biden administration was actively working with big tech companies to stifle or censor free expression on a range of issues, including an email from Facebook to Biden's surgeon general about a meeting between the two entities during which White House expectations regarding Facebook's policies on "misinformation" were discussed.
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A senior FB official sent an email to the Surgeon General stating, “I know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.” This email chain follows the SG’s “misinformation health advisory” in July 2021. pic.twitter.com/M4YuTC6vGa
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
The litigation process uncovered specific and explicit information about how Facebook was censoring content posted to its platform, apparently at the Biden administration's request, based on so-called third party fact checkers who are known to be biased and beholden to Democrat interests. Facebook also explained that it was taking strict action to suppress content on its platform labeled as merely "lacking context" as if it were rated to be entirely false.
The same senior official sent a later email to HHS and noted, "Thanks again for taking the time to meet earlier today." Then, the official continued to discuss how Facebook is taking even more steps to censor freedom of speech https://t.co/gYz2RtXlNF pic.twitter.com/c9FqgKVtBe
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
It wasn't just Facebook colluding with the Biden administration, either. Twitter scheduled meetings with White House officials to discuss "vaccine misinformation."
Twitter scheduled a meeting to debrief top White House Officials on “vaccine misinformation.” pic.twitter.com/KmYPMlCk8l
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
Meanwhile, both Twitter and Facebook emails with Biden administration officials show the two entities colluding directly in a relationship where "claims" flagged by big tech companies would face "debunking" in regular meetings with the CDC's "experts." That is, what the Biden administration decided was harmful "misinformation" would then presumably be squashed by big tech companies at the expense of free speech on their platforms.
The CDC also proposed a monthly debunking meeting with Facebook to help them censor free speech as well as regular “Be on the Lookout” calls with major social media outlets. pic.twitter.com/oSAjbxbT8b
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
In addition to speech related to COVID, the Biden administration pursued a proactive relationship with big tech companies whenever scandal hit, such as the embarrassingly botched rollout of the allegedly discontinued Disinformation Governance Board:
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reached out to Twitter, Google, Meta, and Microsoft following the botched rollout of DHS’ Disinformation Governance Board: pic.twitter.com/b8oS0cjFj3
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
Additional communications showed the White House asking Instagram to remove fake accounts impersonating Dr. Fauci and the Treasury Department's deputy secretary asking Meta for a meeting "to discuss potential influence operations on social media."
As Schmitt explained, the documents his litigation with Landry have already uncovered are just the beginning of their probe into what the Biden administration has been doing when it comes to using its position of power to get big tech companies to censor Americans' speech.
This is just the beginning. We’ve beat the Biden Administration in court in this case, and we plan to do it again.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
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