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The Facebook Files
Confirmed

Internal 'Facebook Files': 'We Were Under Pressure From the Administration'

Internal Facebook emails obtained by Rep. Jim Jordan and The Wall Street Journal showed company staff linking the 2021 lab-leak removal policy to pressure from the Biden administration. Other emails showed White House officials pressing Facebook on vaccine-related humor and hesitancy content.

Jul 27, 2023
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Whose side it served: Democrats

Shows a Democratic White House pushing Facebook to remove pandemic content.

What the record shows

In a July 2021 email, Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg asked why Facebook was 'removing—rather than demoting/labeling—claims that Covid is man made.' A content-policy employee replied: 'We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn't have done it.' A Facebook vice president wrote that the White House wanted humor about vaccine side effects removed. The emails also show Facebook had asked the CDC whether the virus was man-made; the CDC replied it was 'technically possible' but 'extremely unlikely.' Jordan released the documents in late July 2023 as 'The Facebook Files.'

In their words

“We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more.”— Facebook content-policy employee, internal email (July 2021) · source
“We shouldn't have done it.”— Facebook content-policy employee, internal email (July 2021) · source
The other side

The emails also show internal debate and decisions Facebook made itself, and the Supreme Court later found the platforms often exercised their own judgment. Some executives worried removals would backfire, which shows the company was weighing its own concerns, not only following orders.

Sources

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