Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

Documents Uncover Secret Twitter Portal US Government Used To Censor
COVID-19 Content
Elon Musk calls it 'extremely concerning'

https://www.theepochtimes.com/documents-uncover-secret-twitter-portal-us-government-used-to-censor-covid-19-content_4924270.html

https://ftp.aflegal.org/foia/HHS/COVID%20Disinformation%20-%20CDC%20-%2021-01575-FOIA/2022_12_06_CDC%20Production.pdf

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602984225254346752

https://aflegal.org/afl-lawsuit-reveals-damning-cdc-documents-proving-government-collusion-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech-and-promote-biden-administration-propaganda-2/
https://aflegal.org/afl-lawsuit-uncovers-more-audacious-cdc-documents-revealing-the-biden-administrations-blatant-complicity-with-big-tech-to-push-disinformation-and-suppress-and-censor-free-speech/
https://aflegal.org/breaking-afl-uncovers-documents-revealing-that-biden-admins-guidance-on-masking-children-in-school-was-driven-by-the-kaiser-foundations-political-polling/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33320052/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24624471/
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/more-vaccinated-unvaccinated-now-dying-covid-19
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effectiveness/why-measure-effectiveness/breakthrough-cases.html

https://www.news18.com/news/tech/google-doesnt-like-you-searching-for-coronavirus-apps-but-censorship-is-broken-2526573.html
https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-google-facebook-and-twitter-censored-accurate-information-on-covid-to-promote-the-vaccines/
https://www.idnfinancials.com/archive/news/27589/Google-donate-Rp-27-billion-for-anti-hoax-campaign
https://www.facebook.com/journalismproject/mafindo-facebook-third-party-fact-checking
https://www.facebook.com/help/publisher/182222309230722
https://www.ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-prevent-covid-19

New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret
Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the
government’s narrative.

In its ongoing probe into Twitter’s censorship practices, America
First Legal has obtained a fourth set of documents (pdf) exposing a
secret Twitter portal, which U.S. government officials used to censor
dissenting COVID-19 views in violation of the First Amendment. It’s a
revelation Elon Musk described as “extremely concerning.”

    Extremely concerning …
    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2022

The documents reveal that the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) was collaborating with UNICEF, the World Health
Organization, and Mafindo to mitigate “disinformation.”

Mafindo is a Facebook third-party fact-checking partner based in
Indonesia that is funded by Google, known to have censored searches
for keywords like Coronavirus, and COVID-19 as well as blocking
information regarding adverse reactions and deaths caused by COVID-19
vaccines. Facebook started its third-party fact-checking program in
2016, working with fact-checkers from around the world who are
certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter
to rate and review the accuracy of the content on their platform.
According to the IFCN website, they believe “nonpartisan and
transparent fact-checking can be a powerful instrument of
accountability journalism.” However, among their advisory board,
U.S.-based representatives appear to be from liberal-leaning outlets
such as the Washington Post and PolitiFact, which is owned by Poynter.

The Twitter Portal

On March 10, 2021 email from a US Public Policy employee at Facebook
to several CDC employees spoke of the social media giant’s “weekly
sync with CDC” and how the CDC was “to invite other agencies as
needed.”

A March 24, 2021 email from the same Facebook employees to CDC
employees said “this is my regular FB meeting and they would like to
discuss 2 misinformation topics” and “misinformation that was
removed.”

On May 10, 2021, a Twitter employee recommended to a CDC official to
enroll in Twitter’s Partner Support Portal, which he described as “the
best way to get a spreadsheet like this reviewed.”

On May 11, 2021, the CDC official enrolled her personal Twitter
account into Twitter’s Partner Support Portal, which allowed “a
special, expedited reporting flow in the Twitter Help Center.”

A May 19, 2021 Facebook Community Standards manual reveals how the
company works with lawmakers and legal council as well as human rights
activists in developing policies in their goals of “bringing 50
million people a step closer to vaccinations” while “combatting
COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation” and “overcoming global challenges
in vaccination.” Methods used to accomplish this included removing
“false information that has been debunked by public health experts”
and rejecting ads that violate their policies, “including those that
discourage vaccination.” They also reduced the distribution of
“misleading claims rated by independent fact-checkers.”

Removed Content

Posts that Facebook would delete—which the CDC or any other public
health authority deemed as “false and likely to contribute to imminent
violence of physical harm”—included:

    Claims that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the common flu or cold.
    Claims that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted in certain climates,
weather conditions, or locations.
    Claims that for the average person, something can guarantee
prevention from getting COVID-19 or can guarantee recovery from
COVID-19 before such a cure or prevention has been approved.
    Claims that COVID-19 tests cause cancer.
    Claims about the availability or existence of COVID-19 vaccines.
    Claims about the safety or serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
    Claims about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
    Claims about how the COVID-19 vaccine was developed or its ingredients.
    Claims involving conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines or
vaccine programs.

Content deemed to have been “debunked” included among other things,
“vaccines cause the disease against which they meant to protect, or
cause the person to be more likely to get the disease,” that “natural
immunity is safer than vaccine acquired immunity,” and  “vaccines are
not effective to prevent the disease against what they purport to
protect.”

Repeat offenders would face restrictions “including (but not limited
to) reduced distribution, removal from recommendations” or removal
from the site.

These punishments were conducted despite evidence that the vaccines do
not prevent transmission, that vaccines cause adverse effects and even
death, and that more vaccinated people are now dying than
unvaccinated. Even the CDC admitted in June that vaccinated people
could contract the disease again.

‘The Coolest Misinformation Fighting Speakeasy’

In August 2021, the head of Google’s News Lab for the Asia Pacific
region (APAC), emailed a CDC Vaccine Confidence Strategist to invite
her to the APAC’s “Trusted Media Summit.” The CDC’s vaccine confidence
strategist then emailed the event planner for Google’s APAC Trusted
Media Summit, noting her excitement over being invited to what she
referred to as “the coolest misinformation fighting speakeasy.”

The same CDC employee was then invited to the summit to give a keynote
addressing how the CDC was working with WHO and other international
organizations to address a so-called “infodemic” and using “social
inoculation” to mitigate it.

An Oct. 28 email from a CDC to the Twitter team was regarding
preliminary discussions on the CDC plans for communicating guidance
regarding “pediatric vaccines.”

A Nov. 2, 2021 email from a Facebook employee to multiple CDC
employees was related to “vaccine misinformation” relative to the
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). The Facebook employee informed the
CDC employees that they had “launched a new feature in Instagram,
where accounts that repeatedly post content that violates our policies
on COVID-19 or vaccine misinformation may now lose the ability to be
tagged or mentioned or may see pop-ups asking if they’d like to delete
certain posts that may violate our policies.”

Finally, Facebook boasts of removing over 16 million posts on Facebook
and Instagram, including over 2 million between February and May 2021.

AFL’s first release of documents revealed the explicit collusion
between the CDC and Big Tech to censor what the Biden administration
deemed “misinformation” and push covert COVID-19 propaganda. AFL’s
second release built the evidentiary record showing that CDC
specifically sent Facebook and Twitter-specific posts to take down,
throttle, censor, or flag. AFL’s third release revealed that the CDC’s
mask guidance policies for school children were driven by political
polling by liberal dark money group The Kaiser Family Foundation.