Today's White House press briefing featured Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who spoke about an advisory on health misinformation that he recently published. After he left, press secretary Jen Psaki took questions:
Q: Has the administration been in touch with any of these companies and are there any actions that the federal government can take to ensure their cooperation, because we’ve seen, from the start, there’s not a lot of action on some of these platforms.
PSAKI: In terms of actions, Alex, that we have taken — or we’re working to take, I should say — from the federal government: We’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General’s office. We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect — to connect medical experts with popular — with popular — who are popular with their audiences with — with accurate information and boost trusted content. So we’re helping get trusted content out there.
This prompted a huge outcry from conservatives. For example, here is David Harsanyi at National Review:
A state can regulate speech in numerous ways. If, for instance, the corporate CEOs and cultural elites collude with the government — explicitly or implicitly — to decide how people interact, they engage, functionally speaking, in censorship. And that is exactly what the Biden administration does when it, as Jen Psaki explained to reporters today, “flag[s] problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”
Anyone who argues for free-association rights of private companies — as I do — should view such a relationship as authoritarian.
Am I missing something here? The White House provides information to news outlets all the time. They also complain about coverage all the time. It's routine.
There's no evidence here of the government abusing its power to force anyone to toe the White House line. They're just passing along information about the COVID-19 vaccine, and social media companies are free to use it or not. In what universe is this either censorship or authoritarianism?
The Right-Bolshevik party that the US Republicans have become....
The Trump Republican universe, which requires a daily supply of fresh "scandals" for the massive propaganda network to feed to the base, in order that liberals will have to devote all their energies to trying to discredit them instead of advancing the Democratic agenda.
> Am I missing something here?
They're Republicans?
Exactly. They are always lying and should be disregarded at all points.
"Am I missing something here?"
Probably overlooked the fact that Republicans want lies to be accepted as alternative facts, and you can't do this if actual information is available.
Ah, David Harsanyi -- truly, an American Orbanite -- bemoaning the Pepe Maximo White House's pro-vaccination press releases while saying nothing of El Jefe Maximo having collected noodz of Adam Schiff's grandchildren.
What a world the GQP lives in.
Why exactly is anyone reading or getting dragged into arguing with anyone associated with the National Review. They’re just a bunch racist, bigoted Nazis with better tailors and posher accents who pose themselves as “moderate Republicans”. And that’s what they’ve always been.
The National Review is a vile organization people by some of the vilest people on the planet. It’s a huge mistake to engage in a good faith dialogue with a bad faith actor. As they say, one should never wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig enjoys it.
+1
Exactly.
Please explain Latinx to me.
Spanish is my first language. Every noun is either masculine or feminine. There's no neutral case. That didn't keep Anglo "progressive" racists from inventing a word with no basis in Spanish. Apparently, our "saviors" think our first language is inferior. Why? Because you want us to hack off our gonads and become your "genderless" ideal.
You think this has gone unnoticed. On the contrary, I hear about this ALL THE TIME from the people you pathetic Anglo "progressive" racists hate. Believe me, children, that serve will be returned, with interest.
Cordially,
The Latinx
Callate, Jacobo.
How's it going, racist maricon? LOL
Wait til they find out about those posters that said "loose lips sink ships."
These poor guys really have nothing to work with now don’t they?
The government cannot respond to vaccine misinformation! That’s dictatorship!
Jeez guys. Time for a new approach.
Again, you really need to stop reading sources of disinformation like the National Review and the Wall Street Journal. Or you should at least start telling us what the Weekly World News is saying this week.
Republicans spent so many years swaddled in the lies that HuckaBS and McInaney relentlessly spewed that being smacked by the truth is like coming off a multiyear bender cold turkey.
I preferres to say McNinny.
McInanity.
Is the assumption said content will be removed? I suppose it all depends on that, and what the White House would do next if the content weren’t removed.
They're just pissed they can't lie with impunity. Suffer the consequences for your speech that is how it's traditionally been you bottom feeding shit stains.
Thanks, "progressive" racist. These are YOUR PEOPLE, Anglo racist shitstain. LOL
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/portland-officer-shares-experience-as-black-man-on-protest-front-lines/283-94e5fedf-542b-4bbb-acc3-749e2b7aa7f7
"In what universe is this either censorship or authoritarianism?"
In the nutwing alternate universe.
I'm going to disagree with Kevin. The "authoritarian" aspect is demanding private companies take down posts the government doesn't like. That is something worth talking about.
Now if all the government is doing is flagging Facebook posts that spread lies then that isn't actually "authoritarian". If Facebook is just removing things because they are breaking its terms of service then fine. But what if Facebook is removing anything the government tells it to without any other consideration?
I doubt that is happening here, but still something to be concerned about. Imagine if Trump was in office and demanding anything that said Biden won the election be taken down. There is a real issue worth keeping an eye on even if the right wing take is fake outrage.
+1
" even if the right wing take is fake outrage"
So, nothing to worry about. As "Jen Psaki points out" there are 12 people responsible for posting 65% of anti-vaxx information on social media platforms. Robert Kennedy Jr. is by far the most prolific. Facebook has a flag function for a reason - they've ignored it a lot, till recently. Now that they are putting it to use, as is their RIGHT based on the terms of service Facebook users agree to, the right is getting vapors. Tough!
Everybody knows that facts have a well-known librul bias. Therefore, correcting lies reveals a Democrat bias. Insisting on facts, instead of the Wingnut Conspiracy du Jour is equally biased. The truth is not bipartisan! It's not balanced! It's not fair!
Therefore, when calls for accuracy and truthfulness come from the Gummint itself, it's obviously fascism. Of the left. Leftist fascism. It violates American's Gawd-given rights to lie and con and profit therefrom, regardless of the cost in other Americans' lives.
It's actually very simple. For a simple people.
I think this is projection: The Trumpists are the ones who want to censor. After all their "truths" are the ones that are not self evident.
Trump wants to arrest comedians for, what, treason?
Biden wants to get accurate information out about the vaccine.
Yep, Biden is much worse.
We hew too closely to a binary world of truth and lies. If someone's speculating about something based on limited information, it's often chased down with an insinuation of disinfo / conspiracy.
There definitely are indisputable facts, but more often than not, people are simply misinformed of the facts and coming to erroneous conclusions based on their lack of information. Lacking knowledge doesn't make one stupid; it makes one uninformed. Calling someone stupid because they're uninformed doesn't help those people see the light; it pushes them further away from accepting new information.
And because the facts can often change with new inputs or more data, rather than accept nuance, people choose to hew to that binary world, tossing the baby with the bathwater.
Earlier in the article discussion between the WH and Facebook is reported as being “tense” … seeking deletion and not getting it?
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/16/tech/misinformation-covid-facebook-twitter-white-house/index.html
But they got you to pay attention. Another lib owned. Thanks for playing. We can do this all day.
Do you think come moderates are turned off enough by the dishonest national review to vote for democrats next election? Of course not.
Mr. Drum, we both know it's a number of overlapping and complementary tactics:
1) Abuse any opportunity, no matter how ignorant or stupid or specious or vile, to lie about Biden/Democrats as "authoritarian," "fascist," etc etc. Pound the propaganda table, create the 'reality' with the base, sow doubt with LOV's, put the Dems on the defensive, etc etc.
2) Projection.
3) They truly believe this s**t.
4) And so on.