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The Facebook Files
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Facebook Unpublished the Great Barrington Declaration Page

Facebook took down the page of the Great Barrington Declaration, the October 2020 statement by epidemiologists opposing broad lockdowns, saying only that it violated community standards. The authors say it was restored about a week later without explanation.

Feb 4, 2021
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Whose side it served: Neither party

Suppressed scientists' dissent from lockdown policy rather than either party directly.

What the record shows

Declaration co-authors Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya wrote that Facebook deleted the page on Feb. 4, 2021, two days after they posted a message supporting voluntary vaccination of high-risk groups. The only notice said the page was unpublished because it 'goes against our community standards.' Just the News reported the removal on Feb. 5, 2021, quoting Bhattacharya that the page 'disappeared without warning'; Facebook did not respond to its request for comment. Kulldorff and Bhattacharya wrote that the page was restored roughly a week later 'without any explanation.' Bhattacharya later became an individual plaintiff in Missouri v. Biden.

In their words

“disappeared without warning”— Jay Bhattacharya, Stanford professor and declaration co-author · source
The other side

The main account of the removal and restoration comes from the declaration's own authors, and Facebook never publicly explained the takedown, so it is unclear whether it was a deliberate policy call or an enforcement error. The declaration's lockdown approach was also strongly disputed by many public health experts.

Sources

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