White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a briefing Thursday disclosed the government is helping social media companies police speech and flow of information on their platforms.
The press secretary revealed government's role after Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on companies to purge more pandemic 'disinformation' posts. “We’re asking [social media companies] to consistently take action against misinformation superspreaders on their platforms,” Murthy said.
Psaki disclosed the extent to which the administration is going to censor free discussion of the coronavirus pandemic and the mNA vaccines. “We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,” she said.
The press secretary doubled down Friday calling for anyone banned from one social media platform to also be banned from the other platform. "You shouldn't be banned from one platform and not others, if you're for providing misinformation out there," Psaki said.
During an apperance Sunday on CNN, the surgeon general also doubled down. “What I’ve also said to them, publicly and privately, is that it’s not enough," Murthy said. "That we’re still seeing a proliferation of misinformation online, and we know that health misinformation harms people’s health. It costs them their lives.”
The administration's disclosure of its role in censoring speech set off alarm bells among free speech activists, conservatives and Republican politicians.
"Everything we thought about the Biden administration and their willingness to trample on free speech and the Constitution and to use government power to silence you, they are doing and worse," Republican Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX) said.