CDC Onboarding Process and Facebook Censorship Monitoring Tool
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms, including Facebook, took significant steps to combat misinformation and promote authoritative health information. However, claims have surfaced that the platform collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a special government-operated censorship portal.
A thorough investigation of available search results reveals no credible data supporting these claims. While the CDC and Facebook did cooperate to prioritise official health messaging and discourage misinformation, there is no evidence to suggest a unique government portal was used for direct censorship of posts on Facebook during the pandemic.
Content moderation decisions appear to have been made by the social media companies themselves, sometimes in consultation with public health authorities to identify misinformation. The documents obtained through litigation against the CDC, however, do reveal detailed onboarding materials used to train CDC employees on a specialized Facebook portal aimed at curbing "Covid & Vaccine Misinformation."
Facebook's Community Standards state that they remove information deemed "false" by public health authorities. The portal, which only granted access to approved government and law enforcement personnel, automatically generated a ticket for each censorship request. The confirmation message on the portal reaffirmed that "Government requests ... Facebook processes."
The documents also highlight the United Kingdom's role in shaping the Biden-Harris Administration's approach to online censorship. It is important to note that the Constitution prohibits the government from censoring the American people, yet the documents show that the Biden-Harris Administration and Facebook made it easy for the government to censor posts.
The training for the portal came in response to demands from senior Biden-Harris White House officials. Facebook had removed over 16 million pieces of content since the beginning of the pandemic. The third step for the Facebook portal used for censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic was named "Final landing page: transparency."
Recent statements from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director, assert that the documents show "the architecture behind the systems that political appointees and governmental bureaucrats used to unconstitutionally censor the free speech of Americans online."
In conclusion, while the collaboration between the CDC and Facebook was instrumental in prioritising official health messaging and discouraging misinformation, the available search results do not substantiate claims that this involved a special government portal used for direct censorship of posts on Facebook during the pandemic.
- The collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Facebook prioritized official health messaging and discouraged misinformation, but there's no evidence of a unique government-operated censorship portal.
- Content moderation decisions on Facebook were made by the social media company itself, sometimes with consultation from public health authorities, and no direct censorship of posts was done through a special portal.
- The documents obtained through litigation against the CDC reveal details of a specialized Facebook portal aimed at combating "Covid & Vaccine Misinformation," with access only granted to approved government and law enforcement personnel.
- Facebook's Community Standards state that content deemed "false" by public health authorities would be removed, and this portal automatically generated a ticket for each censorship request.
- The documents highlight the United Kingdom's role in shaping the Biden-Harris Administration's approach to online censorship, and they show that the Biden-Harris Administration and Facebook made it easier for the government to censor posts.
- Recent statements from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director, claim that the documents reveal the architecture behind systems used by political appointees and governmental bureaucrats to unconstitutionally censor American free speech on social media.
