BY SIMONE J. SMITH
“I am glad to see some mainstream media corrections, but they are of course too little, too late to have any real impact.”
CHD CEO Mary Holland
In 2020, the world changed. A pandemic swept across the globe, and with it came fear, uncertainty, and a thirst for information. For us, the newsroom was no different, but as the crisis deepened, so did the walls around us. Walls of censorship. We had one job: to keep our community informed, and suddenly, we were being silenced.
How were we supposed to warn them about this? We were told to follow the guidelines. Stick to the facts but leave out anything that might create unrest. We don’t need people panicking. Unrest? People should be worried; we had to prepare them.
Control the narrative. That was the message, clear as day, and so, we found ourselves caught in a bind. We were the voice of the community, but our voice was being stripped away. Even when we tried to push the boundaries, tried to get the warnings out there, they wouldn’t listen. Our own community—the very people we were fighting to protect—had stopped paying attention.
Our warnings fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t just censorship that silenced us—it was the erosion of trust. Trust, we had worked so hard to build over the years, now slipping through our fingers. They didn’t want to hear our censored words of caution; they didn’t want to believe in warnings. Our job was to tell the truth, but what happens when the truth is no longer allowed?
I found out last month that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to censor content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic, and this has prompted some media outlets to correct articles published years ago. Mark Zuckerberg’s admission was in a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which included a statement that he regretted not being more outspoken about the government’s pressure to censor social media content. He said he regretted not being more outspoken about the issue, and that he planned to push back if something similar happened in the future. In his letter, Zuckerberg said:
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humour and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.”
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
“I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something happens again.”
The White House responded in a statement that the administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health.
“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.”
The documentation discovered the “relentless” pressure the White House exerted on media companies to censor COVID-19-related information that contradicted the government and mainstream media narrative about COVID-19 origins, lockdowns, or vaccines.
Those who were concerned with government censorship celebrated Mark Zuckerberg’s letter. Those long involved in making this well-known censorship public and holding the administration accountable had more tempered responses.
Children’s Health Defence General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said, “The harm here runs deep — attacking the very fabric of our First Amendment rights. Free speech is a hallmark of democracy, and I am concerned that the government’s suppression of speech, CCDH’s actions, and a media that was coerced by and complicit with the government, is a dangerous and slippery slope about which all Americans need to be concerned.”
I would like to add to this that this is something that affects the world, not just Americans, and now… the silence due to censorship has cost lives. The irony was bitter—we, who had fought so hard to be the voice of our community, had been reduced to whispers in the shadows. We warned them, yes, but our warnings were buried under censorship, drowned in misinformation, and ignored by those who needed them most.
REFERENCES:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender_category/covid/
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender_category/censorship-surveillance/
Zuckerberg Admits Biden Administration Pressured Facebook to Censor COVID-related Content
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