{"id":2360608,"date":"2025-01-13T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/?p=2360608"},"modified":"2025-01-13T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T18:13:09","slug":"zuckerberg-vindicates-justice-alito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/2025\/01\/13\/zuckerberg-vindicates-justice-alito\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg Vindicates Justice Alito"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/zuckerberg-vindicates-justice-alito\/\">Zuckerberg Vindicates Justice Alito<\/a><br \/>\nby <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/author\/brownstone\/\">Brownstone Institute<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\">Brownstone Institute<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/play.ht\/embed\/?article_url=https:\/\/play.ht\/drafts\/VNtZn92Yxve7RsXivZySefxGa2k2\/tJM1LWWzR&amp;voice=en-US-Wavenet-J\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"90px\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">This week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made headlines as he overhauled his company\u2019s \u201cfact-checking\u201d operations and detailed how the Biden administration attempted to coerce social media companies into censoring posts critical of the government\u2019s Covid response. If the company refused to comply, the Biden administration threatened to retaliate through weaponizing the judicial system, Zuckerberg explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBiden administration officials used to call and scream at us demanding that we remove Covid related content, even things that were facts, or memes and humor,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7k1ehaE0bdU&amp;pp=ygUZam9lIHJvZ2FuIG1hcmsgenVja2VyYmVyZw%3D%3D&amp;pbjreload=102\">told<\/a> Joe Rogan. \u201cWhen we refused, we found ourselves under investigation by several agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zuckerberg continued:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;During the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program\u2026while they were trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true. They basically pushed us and said, you know, that \u2018anything saying that says vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The forthright explanation renewed discussion of the Government\u2019s censorship of dissidents in the Covid response, but it merely repeated information known to the Supreme Court last summer. And please note: we have emails from Zuckerberg to Fauci from February 2020 in which he willingly turned over his operations to CDC propaganda, perhaps under an intuitive understanding that it would be better to position his company for power instead of against it. In addition, Facebook absolutely did censor true information about vaccines, and did it as a matter of policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last June, the Supreme Court considered whether to uphold a lower court injunction preventing government agencies from pressuring social media giants to censor politically unfavorable content. Justice Alito outlined scores of First Amendment abuses from the Biden administration and detailed the ways in which the White House used the threat of the regulatory state to coerce Meta, Twitter, and other companies into effectuating their censorship regime. The opinion cited Zuckerberg, who said the threat of antitrust lawsuits was an \u201cexistential\u201d threat to his company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Alito was in the minority, as a six-Justice majority, led by Amy Coney Barrett, overturned the injunction in <em>Murthy v. Missouri<\/em>. The Court found that the plaintiffs, a group including doctors, news outlets, and state attorneys general who faced social media censorship, lacked standing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zuckerberg\u2019s recent statements highlight the absurdity of Justice Barrett\u2019s opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, and the Court\u2019s liberal bloc. But his admissions are not revelations at all. Instead, they confirm already-known abuses that he and his company aided and abetted as the political tides turn, just as Zuckerberg did in 2022 when he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-62688532\">told Rogan<\/a> that the Intelligence Community pressured social media companies to suppress reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time of the opinion, Brownstone <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/the-court-green-lights-censorship\/\">wrote<\/a> that the Court\u2019s \u201copinion rests on omitted facts, skewed perceptions, and absurd conclusory statements,\u201d while the dissent, issued by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, \u201cmasterfully recounts the facts of the case and the inconsistency of the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/the-censors-henchmen\/\">The Censors\u2019 Henchmen<\/a>,\u201d we outlined how Rob Flaherty, President Biden\u2019s Director of Digital Strategy, spearheaded the White House\u2019s clamp down on free speech, through <em>calling and screaming at company officials to remove content<\/em>, as Zuckerberg told Rogan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u201cAre you guys fucking serious?\u201d Flaherty exploded at Facebook after the company failed to censor critics of the Covid vaccine. \u201cI want an answer on what happened here and I want it today.\u201dAt other times, Flaherty was more direct. \u201cPlease remove this account immediately,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520\/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520.293.0.pdf\">told<\/a> Twitter about a Biden family parody account. The company compiled within an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flaherty made it clear that he was concerned with political power, not veracity or <em>disinformation<\/em>. He demanded Facebook stifle \u201coften-true content\u201d that could be considered \u201csensational.\u201d He asked company executives if they could interfere with private messages containing \u201cmisinformation\u201d on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In April 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/censors-unmasked-flaherty-gottlieb-and-slavitt\/\">Flaherty and Andy Slavitt<\/a>, another Biden advisor, demanded that the company remove memes lampooning the Covid vaccine. In an April 2021 email, Nick Clegg, Facebook\u2019s president for global affairs, informed his team at Facebook that Slavitt was \u201coutraged&#8230;that [Facebook] did not remove\u201d a particular post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Clegg \u201ccountered that removing content like that would represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US,\u201d Slavitt disregarded the warning and the First Amendment, complaining that the posts \u201cdemonstrably inhibit[ed] confidence\u201d in the Covid vaccines. <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/facebook-files-show-brazen-aggressive-censorship\/\">In August 2021<\/a>, Facebook announced in internal emails, later released publicly, that it would change its censorship policies as a result of pressure from the Biden White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <em>Murthy<\/em>,<em> <\/em>the majority opinion was bereft of references to the perpetrators of the censorship regime or their statements of coercion. Justice Barrett did not mention Rob Flaherty or Andy Slavitt \u2013 the two main <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/the-censors-henchmen\/\">henchmen<\/a> behind the Biden Administration\u2019s censorship efforts \u2013 a <em>single time<\/em> in her holding. Alito\u2019s dissent, however, devoted pages to recounting the White House\u2019s ongoing censorship campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Alito, in notable contrast, cited how \u201cthe White House\u2019s emails were phrased virtually as orders and the officials\u2019 frequent follow-ups ensured that they were understood as such.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than six months ahead of Zuckerberg\u2019s rebranding press tour, Justice Alito outlined how the legal system provided the regime with the weapons to coerce social media companies into submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alito explained that social media companies are \u201cfar more vulnerable to Government pressure than other news sources.\u201d He wrote: \u201cIf a President dislikes a particular newspaper, he (fortunately) lacks the ability to put the paper out of business. But for Facebook and many other social media platforms, the situation is fundamentally different. They are critically dependent on the protection provided by \u00a7230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47 U. S. C. \u00a7230, which shields them from civil liability for content they spread.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This creates an all-encompassing regulatory authority that demands subservience from social media companies. The <em>Murthy<\/em> majority, however, only mentioned this \u201cexistential\u201d threat in passing, noting that Jen Psaki \u201cspoke generally about \u00a7230 and antitrust reform\u201d in July 2021 amid White House pressure to promote vaccine censorship. But evidently, Barrett and the rest of the majority did not feel inclined to address the issues that Justice Alito raised in dissent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alito noted that Meta executives\u2019 responses \u201cto persistent inquiries, criticisms, and threats show that the platform perceived the statements as something more than mere recommendations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Alito, citing the facts that the majority ignored, explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;For these and other reasons, internet platforms have a powerful incentive to please important federal officials, and the record in this case shows that high-ranking officials skillfully exploited Facebook\u2019s vulnerability. When Facebook did not heed their requests as quickly or as fully as the officials wanted, the platform was publicly accused of \u201ckilling people\u201d and subtly threatened with retaliation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Zuckerberg\u2019s about-face is welcome, his statements do not reveal any new information. They also understate the extent of the threat and subsequent full cooperation, which began much earlier than the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zuckerberg\u2019s recent statements highlight the dereliction of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett in their failure to uphold the First Amendment against the winds of political pressure. They are supposed to support the US Constitution, not find clever ways to exonerate agencies that blatantly and aggressively trample upon it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/zuckerberg-vindicates-justice-alito\/\">Zuckerberg Vindicates Justice Alito<\/a><br \/>\nby <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/author\/brownstone\/\">Brownstone Institute<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\">Brownstone Institute &#8211; Daily Economics, Policy, Public Health, Society<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"attribution\">The post <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/zuckerberg-vindicates-justice-alito\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zuckerberg Vindicates Justice Alito<\/a> was first published by <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Brownstone Institute<\/a>, and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Please support their efforts.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zuckerberg Vindicates Justice Alito<br \/>\nby Brownstone Institute at Brownstone Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":2360610,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2360608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2360608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2360611,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360608\/revisions\/2360611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2360610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2360608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2360608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2360608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}