Files reveal White House tried to limit spread of COVID vaccine information on Facebook
Facebook Files show White House's requests in an effort to curb COVID vaccine misinformation. FOX Business' Hillary Vaughn with the latest.
Facebook took steps to suppress true information or mere opinions about vaccines to avoid a "vaccine negative environment," according to internal company occupations viewed by Fox Business.
On a July 2021 call between Facebook employees and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's Office, a Facebook employee explained they were combating misinformation, but also working to contain information they admitted was "not false."
Facebook told the Surgeon General’s office they instituted "borderline demotions" for someone sharing "negative side effect posts" or even "posts questioning whether you should get a vaccine under a mandate, whether it’s government overreach. We demote those. That’s not false information, but it leads to a vaccine negative environment."
The Biden White House didn’t want just true content restrained, however; even memes irked them.
In an email, Facebook’s then-VP of Global Affair Nick Clegg discussed with his team a call he had with Andy Slavitt, President Biden's White House senior adviser for the COVID response. Clegg said of Slavitt, "he was outraged — not too strong a word to describe his reaction — that we did not remove this post" pointing to a meme about vaccine side effects.
A Facebook employee acknowledged demoting posts that created what they called a "vaccine negative environment." (Kurt Knutsson)
The meme in question used the popular image of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at his TV, with the text, "10 years from now you will be watching TV and hear, ‘Did you or a loved one take the covid vaccine? You may be entitled…’", a riff on commercials often seen for class-action lawsuits.
Clegg continued, "I countered that removing content like that would represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US, but he replied that the post was directly comparing Covid vaccines to asbestos poisoning in a way which demonstrably inhibits confidence in Covid vaccines amongst those the Biden administration is trying to reach."
The White House and Meta didn't reply to requests for comment.
The newly released "Facebook Files" have shown how White House officials pressed the social media giant for special access to tools to target vaccine-hesitant users and berated Facebook employees for not sharing enough data, contradicting White House claims at the time.
According to internal company communications viewed by Fox Business, the White House asked Facebook if they could provide government agencies with special access to tools to target users.
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"Since it’s a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn’t be able to?" President Biden’s digital director Rob Flaherty asked.
The idea came up in a conversation about how to convince people worried about side effects around the COVID vaccine to take it.
On an April 5, 2021, call, a Facebook employee mentioned how if someone was worried about nose bleeds as a side effect of the vaccine, in an ideal world, they would direct them to information addressing that concern. Flaherty asked the Facebook team "are you able to provide resources?"
Another Facebook employee replied doing something like showing them a targeted resource addressing their concern might trigger people. The Facebook employee said they "have to be careful in how we approach."
Flaherty asked, "If people are having the conversation, is the presumption that we let people have it. Direct them to CDC. What then?"
A Facebook employee replied, "We all know people that have had the experience that think that FB is listening to them."
The Facebook Files show how President Biden's team pressed the social media giant for special access to tools to target vaccine-hesitant users. (Joe Biden/Twitter Screenshot)
The Facebook employee told Flaherty that something like an immediate generated message about nose bleeds might give users "the Big Brother feel" but suggested they show the content on a delay to avoid setting off alarm bells among users.
"We should pay attention to those conversations, make sure that people see information, even if it’s not right then," the Facebook employee said.
During the April 5 call, Biden’s head of strategic communications and public engagement for the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Courtney Rowe, appeared to mock middle America’s ability to determine what is true and what isn’t.
"If someone in rural Arkansas sees something on FB, it’s the truth," Rowe said. "What we need is help pushing back on the myths."
The idea that "Big Brother" was snooping on people’s Facebook conversations is something the White House brushed off at the time when Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked about it in July 2021. Doocy asked then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki at the time if the government was "spying" on people’s profiles looking for vaccine misinformation.
Psaki claimed, "This is publicly open information, people sharing information online. Just as you are all reporting information on your news stations."
Doocy followed up, "The big concern, though, I think, for a lot of people on Facebook is that now this is Big Brother watching you."
"They’re more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms? That feels unlikely to me," Psaki replied.
The calls between the White House and Facebook grew more hostile. On an April 14 phone call between White House officials and Facebook staff, Slavitt, along with Flaherty, ripped into Facebook for not divulging enough information.
Slavitt suggested that Facebook and WhatsApp were being much more difficult to deal with than other platforms the White House was interfacing with.
"Conversations are not as challenging — we have much more straightforward conversations with others," Slavitt said.
Biden White House COVID response adviser Andy Slavitt was critical of Facebook not being cooperative enough. (Shari L. Gross/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Flaherty agreed, "I feel like we’re running around in circles. Some partners give us lots of information, some partners tell us to f--- right off. This feels like we’re chasing our tails. If you don’t want to give information, just say that."
"My dream for FB to play ball. It’s about will we get out of this f---ing mess," Flaherty continued. "I’m not doubting that you are sincerely trying to solve this problem in good faith. I’m doubting that you are telling us everything… We have to explain to President… why there is misinformation on the internet... We don’t want to be in a position where we take down bad news. But if your goal as a company is to make it more likely that people will get the vaccine. People don’t see this in only one way."
A Facebook employee replied, "We can’t ask news outlets to take down bad news."
After the testy call on April 14, Facebook followed up with a big dump of data to the White House. Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs, emailed his team on April 18 recapping a phone call he had with Slavitt.
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Clegg wrote, "He [Slavitt] was appreciative of the data we sent thru on Friday, and confirmed that Rob F had said that they had never received so much data from us before."
Clegg said they agreed to have Flaherty "share the data and policy recommendations from the researchers with us asap so that we could give a considered reply on further steps we may/may not be able to take."
Meta confirmed to Fox News that the data dump referenced by Clegg was data gathered from CrowdTangle, Meta’s tool that analyzes public content on its platform. Facebook in the past has acknowledged it shared CrowdTangle data with the White House.
Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report.
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