Call Me Stormy

The Facebook Files

Newly dropped email files show that Twitter wasn’t alone in following government censorship orders. Facebook also ceded much of its content moderation to government censors, particularly as concerns coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here, Kim Iversen interviews Robby Soave, an American journalist and senior editor at Reason. On Thursday, Soave released the Facebook Files. Much like The Twitter Files, these emails reveal how Facebook and its corporate execs at Meta were pressured to censor content.

Says Soave, “Meta gave the CDC de facto power to police COVID misinfo on the platforms; the CDC took the position that essentially any erroneous claim could contribute to vaccine hesitancy and cause social harm. This was a recipe for vast silencing, at the feds’ implicit behest.”