President Joe Biden’s White House went out of its way to censor Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after he publicly criticized COVID-19 vaccines.
This revelation came from files released by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. The materials relate to a multi-state lawsuit against the Biden administration alleging it worked with tech companies to abridge the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.
Emails published by the Louisiana State Attorney General show Biden officials pushed Facebook to censor a Tucker Carlson video criticizing Covid vaccines. The administration also implied Facebook was encouraging violent behavior & was responsible for Jan 6 https://t.co/fpFOVz0CVv
— John R Lott Jr. (@JohnRLottJr) January 10, 2023
White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty emailed a Facebook worker on April 14, 2021, to express his concerns over certain social media writings. He lamented that the day’s top post about vaccines was from Carlson “saying they don’t work.”
The Fox News host had also questioned why those who were vaccinated could not then resume their normal lives. This resulted in Chelsea Clinton calling out Facebook to remove the video.
The White House official then noted the day before it was Tomi Lahren declaring that she will not be jabbed.
Flaherty then questioned the platform’s “reduction” policies, noting that if it means “pumping up our most vaccine-hesitant audience with Tucker Carlson saying it doesn’t work…I’m not sure it’s reduction!”
Facebook quickly replied that the company was “running this down.”
In a similar vein, the platform told the White House that it would suppress postings of vocal vaccine critic Robert Kennedy Jr.
Carlson on Monday night spoke with AG Landry on his Fox program, and both agreed that the White House move violated the host’s First Amendment rights. He noted that it was no surprise that there were “huge problems” with the COVID vaccine.
The conservative host defended his stance as something he’d tried to point out for over a year. Carlson said that he did not have a problem with vaccines in general or was an anti-vaxxer. However, people forced to receive a shot deserve to know “what it is and what affects it might have.”
He said the newly revealed documents confirm that his program was “censored directly by the White House.”
As more and more information is uncovered, it is shockingly apparent just how much the White House attempted to control the social media narrative over COVID-19. Far from a free discussion of ideas, the administration instead worked to suppress dissent or “inconvenient” information.
And even more alarmingly, the tech companies that control the platforms played right along.
