Psaki Doubles Down on Monitoring Social Media, Says if You're Banned on 1 Network You Should Be Banned on All
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that anyone who posts what the White House considers to be misinformation and is booted off of any single social media platform should be banned from everything.
On Thursday, Psaki revealed that the White House is working hand in glove with Big Tech to point the finger at posts running contrary to the official line.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” she said Thursday, according to a White House transcript of the briefing.
On Friday, she took an even harder line on posters who say things the White House does not want anyone to read.
“You shouldn’t be banned from one platform and not others if you — for providing misinformation out there,” Psaki said, according to a transcript of her Friday briefing.
Peter Doocy of Fox News wanted more information, noted BizPac Review.
“For how long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook profiles looking for vaccine misinformation?” he asked.
Psaki bristled and called the request for information “quite a loaded and inaccurate question.”
She did not offer specifics other than saying the White House is “in regular touch with social media platforms.
This is publicly open information — people sharing information online — just as you are all reporting information on your news stations.”
Psaki, who had claimed earlier that about a dozen individuals were responsible for most of what she called inaccurate information, was then asked if those on the White House list “know that somebody at the Surgeon General’s office is going through their profile?
“There’s no secret list,” Psaki replied. “I will tell you that these are people who are sharing information on public platforms — on Facebook — information that is traveling, is inaccurate.”
She then lectured the media.
“Our biggest concern here — and I, frankly, think it should be your biggest concern — is the number of people who are dying around the country because they’re getting misinformation that is leading them to not take a vaccine,” she said.
“The big concern though, I think, for a lot of people on Facebook is that now this is Big Brother watching you,” Doocy said in reply.
“They’re more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms? That feels unlikely to me,” she replied.
Others have said the White House’s actions are troubling.
The Biden administration is telling Facebook which posts it regards as “problematic” so that Facebook can remove them.
This is the union of corporate and state power — one of the classic hallmarks of fascism — that the people who spent 5 years babbling about fascism support. https://t.co/U2Ee3DgXJe
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021
The Biden administration is telling Facebook which posts it regards as “problematic” so that Facebook can remove them.
This is the union of corporate and state power — one of the classic hallmarks of fascism — that the people who spent 5 years babbling about fascism support. https://t.co/U2Ee3DgXJe
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2021
After being questioned about pushing Facebook to take down posts that could later prove potentially correct, Psaki tried to distance herself from any action taken by Facebook.
“We don’t take anything down. We don’t block anything. Facebook and any private-sector company makes decisions about what information should be on their platform. Our point is that there is information that is leading to people not taking the vaccine, and people are dying as a result. And we have a responsibility, as a public health matter, to raise that issue. The responsibility we all have — the government, media platforms, public messengers — to give accurate information,” she said.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
