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The Biden White House pressured Twitter to both “elevate” and “suppress” purported COVID-19 “misinformation” — but ended up “censoring info that was true but inconvenient” to policymakers, according to the latest edition of the “Twitter Files” revealed Monday.
The coercion campaign during the pandemic began with the Trump administration, but was stepped up under Biden, whose administration was focused on the removal of anti-vaxxer accounts,” according to Free Press reporter David Zweig.
For example, in June 2021, hours after Biden publicly raged that social media companies were killing people by allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate, former New York Times reporter and noted vaccine doubter Alex Berenson was banned from the site.
Berenson responded by suing Twitter, forcing the release of internal communications that showed the White House had pressured the company to squash his account.
1. THREAD:
THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE
By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy
By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed
By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDCs *own data*— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
It doesnt stop infection. Or transmission. Dont think of it as a vaccine, Berenson had tweeted.
Think of it at best as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS, he also wrote.
As recently as this month, Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s head of US public policy, released a summary of meetings with the White House detailing its alleged pressure campaign, according to Zweig. Former New York Times reporter and noted vaccine doubter Alex Berenson was banned from Twitter in June 2021.
Culbertson said in her notes that the administration was “very angry that Twitter had not taken more aggressive action in silencing vaccine critics and wanted the company to do more, files showed.
Among those whom Twitter did clamp down on was Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School
Kulldorff had tweeted in March 2021 that both children and adults who had been previously infected with COVID did not need the vaccine. That was flagged by the site as “misleading” — even though it was in line with the vaccine policies of “numerous other countries,” Zweig wrote. Previous 1 of 9 Next
Advertisement President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig Advertisement President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig Advertisement President Biden publicly raged that social media companies were “killing people” for allowing purported vaccine misinformation to propagate. Twitter/@davidzweig Advertisement
That incident was just the icing on the cake, according to the journalist, who uncovered “countless instances of tweets labeled as ‘misleading’ or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views.”
The latest revelations came after previous “Twitter Files” found the FBI and CIA had meddled in the company, and prompted it to bow to political pressure, including convincing Twitter to censor The Post’s expos on how Hunter Biden used his father’s name to secure questionable business arrangements overseas in the weeks before the 2020 election.
This is a developing story.