(Reclaim The Net) In case you thought 2021 was just about ever-shifting “expert advice,” think again. Thanks to America First Legal, we now know that behind the chaotic public health messaging, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Facebook were playing a little game of “whack-a-mole” with your freedom of speech.
Today, new onboarding documents were unearthed, which shows just how cozy Facebook got with the CDC. The social media giant wasn’t merely policing what it thought was “misinformation” on COVID and vaccines; it was operating as the de facto enforcement arm of the US government’s thought control initiative. The Biden-Harris Administration, while trumpeting their “fight for truth,” had essentially deputized Facebook to clean up the messy world of online discourse. And who decides what’s messy? Apparently, anyone with a .gov email address.
From “Misinformation” to Censorship: The Slippery Slope
Let’s rewind to 2021, the peak of the pandemic drama. The public was dealing with a mutating narrative on what constituted “the truth.”
In other words, what was factual one week might be misinformation the next, depending on who you asked—or more accurately, who was in power.
At the time, the administration faced heavy criticism for overseeing a clampdown on dissent. Social media platforms, like Facebook, took on the noble mantle of censoring anything that didn’t align with the latest CDC talking points.
One day it was, “Don’t wear masks,” and the next, “You must wear two.” If you were quick enough to quote the CDC’s latest declaration, congratulations, you won a reprieve from the online guillotine. But heaven forbid you posted a month-old statement—down came the banhammer.
The First Amendment? Ah yes, that pesky little thing. It felt like an afterthought in the administration’s relentless quest to manage the pandemic, or rather, manage the narrative about the pandemic.
Facebook’s VIP Censorship Lane
And now, thanks to these documents, we get a peek behind the velvet ropes. Apparently, Facebook wasn’t just taking public health directives from the CDC; it built a slick “end-to-end workflow” tailored to the White House’s censorship needs.
Imagine a fast lane for speech suppression, with Facebook playing the role of an eager bouncer outside the digital club, ensuring no “misinformation” slipped through.
Even better, Facebook’s system featured an exclusive portal—imagine a VIP entrance at a nightclub, except instead of celebrities, it was for government and law enforcement officials. This was the red-carpet treatment for anyone in the Biden Administration looking to silence critics and manage dissent. And, of course, Rob Flaherty, then a rising star in the Biden camp and now a senior staffer for the Harris campaign, was at the heart of the effort, barking orders at Facebook to tighten the leash.
The timing is almost poetic, isn’t it? The very people who were busy “building back better” were also busy building an infrastructure to muzzle public discourse.
The system could handle up to twenty censorship requests simultaneously. We’re talking turbo-charged suppression of whatever Uncle Bob posted about vaccines this week. The government’s ability to monitor, muzzle, and “ensure compliance” was never more streamlined.
What makes this truly remarkable (or terrifying, depending on your perspective) is how this system essentially sidestepped traditional email communications. You know, the stuff that’s usually subject to public oversight. What a relief—no more pesky public records to clog the machinery of control. Each censorship request was given a shiny new ticket number, so the government could track Facebook’s obedience to the letter. Now that’s what I call accountability—just not the kind you might be thinking of.
Digital Muzzle: Removing Content One “Misinformation” Post at a Time
The documents reveal the juicy details: Facebook wasn’t just censoring anything. The platform stuck to content that the CDC deemed “dangerous.” And because no censorship operation is complete without a big helping of irony, all of this was done in strict adherence to Facebook’s so-called “community standards.” You know, the same standards that claim to protect free expression and facilitate dialogue. Oh, the contradictions.
The timing of these revelations dovetails beautifully with fresh evidence that the UK government’s policies had a not-so-subtle hand in shaping the Biden-Harris administration’s heavy-handed censorship approach. As if that weren’t enough, Mark Zuckerberg—Facebook’s reigning tech overlord—finally admitted that the platform’s censorship practices weren’t just altruistic acts of public service. No, they were the direct result of pressure from the White House.
The whole process, as laid out in the documents, started with granting access to CDC employees—yes, the same public servants entrusted with your health—using their government-issued email addresses. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. By using this specialized portal, and not email, the government could skirt those pesky federal record-keeping laws. FOIA requests? Public oversight? Forget about it. The new system made sure government actions were neatly tucked away in proprietary software.
