CDC Training Program | Facebook Content Moderation Portal
In a series of documents obtained through litigation, it has been revealed that Facebook and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated during the COVID-19 pandemic to curb the spread of misinformation. The documents, which detail the onboarding materials used to train CDC employees on a specially designed Facebook portal, have been made public by America First Legal.
The portal, exclusive to approved government and law enforcement personnel, allowed users from "authorized government agencies" to refer up to twenty links at a time for Facebook to remove across its platforms. The use of this system was limited to those with government-issued or law enforcement email addresses.
Facebook's Community Standards state that they only remove information deemed "false" by public health authorities. According to the documents, the social media giant censored statements that made "false claims about masks" and discouraged "social distancing." If an individual was a "repeat offender" of the government's determinations on "misinformation," their account's reach would be reduced or removed.
The collaboration between Facebook and the CDC dramatically increased the efficiency of the censorship machine. Prior to the creation of the portal, the CDC had been sending spreadsheets over email with links for Facebook to remove. With the portal, post reporting would be standardized and fed into one system.
The documents also highlight the United Kingdom's role in shaping the Biden-Harris Administration's approach to online censorship. However, they reveal that Facebook and the Biden-Harris Administration worked together to violate the First Amendment rights of Americans.
Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook only engaged in censorship after extreme pressure from the Biden-Harris White House. Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director, stated that the documents show the architecture behind systems used to unconstitutionally censor the free speech of Americans online.
Using this system permits government actors to evade federal law requiring meticulous keeping of federal records. Moving the censorship requests to a Facebook-hosted portal created a loophole in government recordkeeping requirements.
The confirmation message on the portal reaffirmed that "Government requests ... Facebook processes." The third step for the new Facebook portal was named "Final landing page: transparency."
The search results do not provide any specific information or verified details about this collaboration between Facebook and the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at censoring free speech.
For more information, you can access the documents and slide deck here.
[1] General context from the results shows that the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant event involving misinformation challenges, with various governments trying to combat false or misleading information, and social media platforms including Facebook being involved in managing misinformation. However, no source in the search results directly documents or confirms a coordinated effort or censorship collaboration specifically between Facebook and the CDC arising from litigation-disclosed documents.
- The revelation from the obtained documents indicates a collaboration between Facebook and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at curbing the spread of misinformation.
- The collaboration led to the creation of a specially designed Facebook portal, exclusive to approved government and law enforcement personnel, enabling them to refer for removal up to twenty links deemed misinformation.
- Facebook's Community Standards were employed to remove information deemed "false" by public health authorities, with a focus on censoring statements related to "false claims about masks" and discouragement of "social distancing."
- The documents suggest a potential infringement on the First Amendment rights of Americans, as the collaboration appears to have involved the unconstitutional censorship of free speech on Facebook, facilitated by the technological loophole within the portal, which evaded federal recordkeeping requirements.
