The Biden administration pressured Amazon to censor books related to COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021, citing concerns that the material contained “propaganda” and “misinformation,” as internal company emails published by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
The documents were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Arming of the Federal Government by subpoena, Jordan. said in a thread Monday, which he called “THE AMAZON FILES.”
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and disinformation from [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, former White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response, wrote to the online retailer in a March 2, 2021 email, posted by Jordan.
“If you look up ‘vaccines’ in the books, I see what comes up,” Slavitt wrote in a follow-up message that same day. “I haven’t looked beyond that, but if that’s what you see on the surface, it’s concerning.”
The Biden administration has previously been criticized for encouraging social media companies to suppress COVID-19 vaccine content. AFP via Getty Images Amazon was “feeling pressure” from the Biden White House over how it promoted certain book titles, company emails show. Gado via Getty Images
Initially, Amazon officials declined to perform “manual intervention” to remove the appearance of certain book titles, arguing that it would be “too visible” and lead to increased scrutiny.
“We will not do a manual intervention today,” reads an email between Amazon executives. “The team/PR strongly believes that it is too visible, and will further aggravate the Harry/Sally narrative (which is apparently getting the Fox News treatment today), and will not solve the problem in the long term… due to the behavior of the customer. associates.”
Amazon officials, whose name is redacted from the email, then point out that another person at the company, whose name is also redacted, “gave very direct instructions to the teams to be boring and not do anything that would be visible and draw more attention.” attention.” .”
The email indicates that an adjustment was being worked on to the bookstore’s website that would redirect more customers searching for certain keywords to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website and that a screenshot should be sent. screen of that change to the White House, but warned employees. play coy with the Biden administration about possible additional actions.
An email from former White House official Andrew Slavitt appeared to spur the company’s action. X / @JudicaturaGOP
“He [White House] You’ll probably ask why we don’t label the content as [Facebook]/Twitter will if we don’t remove it,” the Amazon official writes. “That is an option that is being explored but that we do not want to reveal to avoid getting caught.”
Amazon defended its book selling practices in another internal email on March 2, 2021, noting that the company’s guidelines “do not specifically address vaccine content” and that “retailers are different than social media communities.” .
A week later, on March 9, 2021, Amazon met with White House officials, according to the emails, and the company’s “main talking points” were whether the Biden administration wanted books blacklisted from the website or suppressed in search results.
“Is the administrator asking us to delete books or are you more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” read a company email.
“Is the administrator asking us to delete books or are you more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” company executives asked themselves. X / @JudicaturaGOP
In another email discussing an upcoming negative media story about COVID-19 vaccine books sold by Amazon, an official acknowledges that the company “is also feeling pressure from the House Task Force.” White on this issue.”
The pressure applied by the Biden administration apparently worked, as the company placed the “anti-vaccine books” under a “Do Not Promote” order the same day Amazon officials met with the White House.
“As a reminder, we enabled Do Not Promote for anti-vaccine books whose primary goal is to persuade readers that vaccines are unsafe or ineffective on March 9, and we will review additional handling options for these books,” states an email between company employees. .
Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and the Armaments subcommittee, revealed that both panels will investigate the alleged censorship effort.
“That’s right. Amazon bowed to pressure from the Biden White House to censor the speech,” Jordan said in a tweet.
Amazon did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
The company issued a “Do Not Promote” order for certain vaccine-related books on the same day Amazon officials met with the White House. X / @JudicaturaGOP
In March, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana alleging that the Biden administration colluded with social media companies to suppress free speech related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last summer, a U.S. district court ruled that administration officials forced companies like Twitter and Facebook to censor content out of fear it raised vaccine hesitancy.
An appeals court subsequently banned numerous White House officials, as well as the FBI, the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from communicating with social media companies.
The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of the appeals court’s order last October until it decides the case.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn