Team Biden’s great double quarter pounder ‘misinformation’ campaign | Washington Examiner

‘MISINFORMATION’ CAMPAIGN. On Sept. 20, Politico published an article headlined “Biden’s campaign set to counterpunch on misinformation.” The story reported that President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign is “overhauling” its strategy to fight “misinformation” on social media. The new effort includes “recruiting hundreds of staffers and volunteers to monitor platforms.” To supervise the work, the campaign hired a former Biden White House staffer named Rob Flaherty, who was described as a “bulldog” and a “controversial figure” whose “combative emails to social media firms have become part of a Republican-led federal court case and a congressional investigation.”

That’s important. The federal court case is Missouri v. Biden, a landmark COVID-era case involving government censorship of social media. Discovery in the case brought revelations that the Biden White House and other Biden administration officials, working with outside activist groups, “held biweekly meetings with tech companies over how to curb the spread of misinformation during the pandemic,” with Flaherty “in constant contact with social media executives,” in the words of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

The White House claimed it was just “flagging problematic posts … that spread disinformation.” But the Wall Street Journal continued: “Officials weren’t merely flagging false statements. They were bullying companies to censor anything contradicting government guidance.” Flaherty demanded that social media companies ban alleged offenders from big platforms like Facebook. After the companies’ initial hesitance, Flaherty and his administration colleagues got their way. “All 12 people dubbed the ‘Disinformation Dozen’ by the Center for Countering Digital Hate were censored, and pages, groups, and accounts linked to them were removed,” the Wall Street Journal said. Flaherty’s work also led to Twitter banning the vaccine skeptic writer Alex Berenson. And then: “The private intimidation was amplified by public threats to use antitrust action and regulation if tech companies didn’t follow orders,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Byron York.