YouTube Files: Biden White House Dictated Censorship Demands Under "Misinformation" Canard
Internal documents from Google, which owns YouTube, reveal that the Biden White House pressured the company to censor Americans spreading alleged "misinformation" related to COVID-19 and vaccinations, according to House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) - who's holding a live hearing on social media censorship today.
The revelation comes nearly one year after Elon Musk released the "Twitter Files" via several journalists, which showed that the DOJ and White House had effectively captured Twitter, which frequently censored upon request.
Then, the Facebook Files emerged, showing similar top-down, big-brother censorship which led Facebook to change internal policies due to pressure from the Biden administration.
“Facebook removed content related to Covid-19 in response to pressure from the Biden administration, including posts claiming the virus was man-made, according to internal company communications viewed by The Wall Street Journal.” https://t.co/vOgRkBNFmW
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 30, 2023
And now, YouTube...
The documents, acquired through a source close to the House Judiciary Committee, reveal that the Biden White House sought to quash vaccine skeptics.
The campaign was led by former White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty, who has since left the administration to help run Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign as a Deputy Campaign Manager.
Flaherty emailed Google team members in April 2021 to "connect […] about the work you’re doing to combat vaccine hesitancy, but also crack down on vaccine misinformation," according to the documents.
Flaherty continued, asking for trends surrounding vaccine misinformation on the website, while offering government assistance in the form of COVID experts at the White House to partner in product work with YouTube. -Fox News
On April 12, 2021, Rob Flaherty—Biden’s Director of Digital Strategy—emailed Google wanting to know how Google could better “crack down on vaccine misinformation” and to discuss “ways the White House (and our COVID experts) can partner in your product work.” pic.twitter.com/rpQyE6mQOU
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 30, 2023
One week later, an internal email from Google noted that Flaherty "particularly dug in on our decision making for borderline content," referring to content which doesn't violate their Community Guidelines, but instead brushes up against it. One week later, Google acknowledged that they sent the White House a list of videos removed for COVID vaccine misinformation.
"Really [Flaherty’s] interested in what we’re seeing that is NOT coming down," read an internal email between employees.
"…there is a very high degree of interest now coming from the White House now regarding vaccine misinfo/vaccine hesitancy and our work around borderline content," reads an April 2021 internal email from YouTube.
"Unfortunately, the role of tech in addressing vaccine hesitancy is about to come under a massive spotlight particularly as the supply of the vaccine is soon to outpace demand," the email continues. "Over the last several weeks, the Google & YT GAAP team have had conversations with the White House staff on YouTube’s policies and all the great work that is being done to raise authoritative information and fight harmful misinformation related to COVID-19 misinformation."
A week later, on April 21, 2021, one of the Google Gov’t Affairs team members, who had been on recent calls with the Biden White House, specifically Rob Flaherty, explained plainly what Flaherty wanted:
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 30, 2023
“Really he’s interested in what we’re seeing that is NOT coming down.” pic.twitter.com/FGcWGX0rLH
The next day, YouTube's Government Affairs team shot an internal email to the company's Product team to flag the interactions with the White House.
"We were hoping to get something on the books in the next two weeks or so to prevent anything from potentially spiraling out of control," reads an email.
The Government Affairs team then asked if the YouTube product team would meet directly with Biden White House staff to show how much censorship they've conducted on their behalf, because "[White House] staff continue[d] to have questions on the raise/reduce efforts" to reduce 'misinformation.'
The email also said that the meeting would be beneficial for their ongoing working relationship with the White House.
"…we believe having the opportunity for you both to share more background would be hugely beneficial as we seek to work closely with this administration on multiple policy fronts."
The company needed this meeting ASAP because:
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 30, 2023
1) there was “significant attention coming from the [White House] staff on this issue”; and
2) Google was seeking “to work closely with [the Biden] administration on multiple policy fronts” and needed to appease them. pic.twitter.com/8FD2D6jkTz
So, the government had totally captured basically every major platform, through which they imposed active suppression of 'misinformation' - which included Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and anyone skeptical of vaccines, lockdowns, or masks.
