Ask questions or post content about COVID-19 that runs counter to the Biden administration’s narrative and find yourself censored on social media.
That’s precisely what data analyst and digital strategist Justin Hart says happened to him. And so last week the Liberty Justice Center, a public-interest law firm, filed a suit on his behalf in California against Facebook, Twitter, President Joe Biden and United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy for violating his First Amendment right to free speech.
Hart had his social media most recently locked for merely posting an infographic that illustrated the lack of scientific research behind forcing children to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID.
In fact, much science indicates that kids aren’t at risk and aren’t spreaders. Study after study repeatedly shows that children are safer than vaccinated adults and that the masks people actually wear don’t do much good.
The lawsuit contends that the federal government is “colluding with social media companies to monitor, flag, suspend and delete social media posts it deems ‘misinformation.’”
It can point to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s July remarks that senior White House staff are “in regular touch” with Big Tech platforms regarding posts about COVID. She also said the surgeon general’s office is “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread.”
“It’s clear to Americans that what is said at the White House podium isn’t always true, so why do we think it’s acceptable for the government to direct social media companies to censor people on critical issues such as COVID?” Hart asks.
This doesn’t mean he hasn’t posted some dubious stuff on this or any other topic. For sure, the ‘Net is full of loons promoting utter idiocy as supposed fact. But the way to counter misinformation isn’t censorship — and it’s certainly not having the feds lean on social-media firms to do the censoring.
The Post has been targeted repeatedly by social media for solid, factual reporting. We can only think such outrages would get worse if Facebook & Co. start trying to enforce some government version of “the truth.”
https://nypost.com/2021/09/06/federal-government-using-social-media-giants-to-censor-americans/