White House tried censoring vaccine skepticism in private WhatsApp messages, emails show

The Biden administration pressured Meta to censor any posts questioning the COVID-19 vaccine in private WhatsApp messages, according to newly released emails.

The emails, which were uncovered during discovery in the Missouri vs. Biden lawsuit, show that the Biden administration went beyond censoring public-facing posts on social media and aimed to control messages between private citizens as well — or what White House Digital Strategy Director Ron Flaherty called “a good mousetrap”.

In a March 2021 email sent to executives at Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, Flaherty expressed frustration at Meta’s failure to censor private messages regarding the COVID-19 vaccine:

On whatsapp, which I may seem like I’m playing gotcha, but I guess I’m confused about how you’re measuring reduction of harm. If you can’t see the message, I’m genuinely curious—how do you know what kinds of messages you’ve cut down on? Assuming you’ve got a good mousetrap here, that’s the kind of info we’re looking for above: what interventions you’ve taken, and what you’ve found to work and not work? And how effective are you seeing the good information on Whatapp [sic] be? Are you doing crossplatform campaign work to try to reduce people’s exposure on whatsapp? As we worry about equity and access, Whatsapp is obviously a central part of that given its reach in immigrant communities and communities of color.

Flaherty’s language suggests that the White House had been pressuring Meta to censor messages for some time with limited success. The White House official offered executives access to White House COVID-19 Response Senior Advisor Andrew Slavitt to discuss the Biden administration’s censorship needs in more detail. 

“You’ve given us a commitment to honest, transparent conversations about this,” Flaherty wrote. “We’re looking for that, and hoping we can be partners here, even if it hasn’t worked so far. I know Andy is willing to get on the phone with [redacted] couple of times per week if its necessary to get all of this. Looking forward.”

Independent journalist David Zweig, who reported these communications on Friday, notes that 90% of WhatsApp messages are sent between two people, and groups usually have less than ten members.

But even Meta — which has eagerly censored social media posts challenging federal science — finds censoring private messages problematic. Instead, the tech giant has partnered with globalist organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and over 100 governments and health ministries to push COVID-19 messaging to WhatsApp users.

Meta told Flaherty as much when it responded to him six days later, explaining that WhatsApp is for private messages.

“Very aware,” responded Flaherty with a smiley face emoji.

In another email, Flaherty demanded to know how Meta is “measuring success” in censoring COVID-19 “misinformation”. 

“On WhatsApp, reduction in forwards is just one of the signals that we use to measure how well we are doing in reducing viral activity on our platform,” responded the Meta executives, adding that they ban accounts which engage in mass marketing or scam behaviors, including “those that seek to exploit COVID-19 misinformation”.

But Flaherty remained dissatisfied.

“I care mostly about what actions and changes you’re making to ensure you’re not making our country’s vaccine hesitancy problem worse,” he wrote. “I still don’t have a good, empirical answer on how effective you’ve been at reducing the spread of vaccine-skeptical content and misinformation to vaccine fence sitters in the now-folded ‘lockdown’.”

The White House official also chided Meta for having “helped increase skepticism” in the 2020 election — despite the fact that the company censored the Hunter Biden story — and for the January 6^th “insurrection” being “plotted” on Facebook, despite the fact that even President Donald Trump only posted on Twitter.

Almost 50 percent of Biden voters knew nothing of the Hunter Biden scandal at the time of the election and about 16 percent said they would not have voted for Biden had they known, according to a survey from The Media Research Center.   

Frontline News previously reported that Meta executives approached the White House to ask how the company could defend COVID-19 vaccines following an announcement by the FDA and CDC that the Johnson & Johnson injection was being paused for causing blood clots.

“Re the J+J news, we’re keen to amplify any messaging you want us to project about what this means for people – it obviously has the risk of exacerbating vaccine hesitancy, so we’re keen to get ahead of the knock-on effect,” a Facebook executive asked Slavitt. “Don’t hesitate to tell me – or via your teams – how we can help you provide clarity/reassurance via Facebook.” 

The executive then sent another email to then-COVID-19 Response Team member Courtney Rowe and Flaherty, asking them “how we are amplifying the right messages.” 

Flaherty responded asking Facebook to put out “3-4 pieces of info” defending the vaccines, such as how the blood clots were found in only six women out of seven million people, the blood clots do not affect Pfizer or Moderna, the FDA and CDC are handling the situation, and other examples. 

The White House official also offered to provide Facebook with an FAQ sheet to be "amplified in whatever way possible.” 

Then Flaherty asked Facebook to change its very algorithm to make sure “a favorable review” of COVID-19 vaccines “reaches as many people as possible.” 

“A commitment from you guys to make sure that a favorable review reaches as many people as possible as the pause, either through hard product interventions or algorithmic amplification,” wrote Flaherty. 

Expectedly, the White House official also directed Facebook to make sure “the news about J&J doesn’t spin off misinformation.” 

These emails, obtained by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), were part of discovery in a lawsuit filed in May by Missouri and Louisiana Attorneys General Eric Schmitt and Jeff Landry, respectively. The complaint alleges a “collusion enterprise” between the federal government and social media companies based on previously revealed internal emails. Judge Terry Doughty ruled in favor of deposing top Biden officials, including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, current White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and former chief medical advisor to the president Anthony Fauci.