White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was grilled during Friday’s press briefing over her admission that the Biden administration is pushing social media companies to censor what they deem is “misinformation.”
Psaki downplayed the notion that people care more about the government spying on them than they care about people dying from COVID-19.
“The big concern though, I think for a lot of people on Facebook, is that now this is big brother watching you,” a reporter said to Psaki.
“They’re more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms?” Psaki responded. “That feels unlikely to me, if you have the data to back that up. I’m happy to discuss it.”
“And about things that are on Facebook, I looked this morning, there are videos of Dr. Fauci from 2020 before anybody had a vaccine, and he’s out there saying there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” the reporter responded. “So, is the administration going to contact Facebook and ask them to take that down?”
“Well, first, I think what Dr. Fauci has said himself, whose been quite public out there is that science evolves, information evolves, and we make that available in a public way to the American people,” Psaki responded. “I have never seen any data to suggest that the vaccines cause infertility. That is information that is irresponsible traveling, okay.”
The reporter then noted that officials used to call the notion that the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab a conspiracy theory and now they concede that the theory is highly plausible.
“We don’t take anything down. We don’t block anything,” Psaki claimed. “Facebook, and any private sector company makes decisions about what information should be on their platform. Our point is that there is information that is leading to people not taking the vaccine, and people are dying as a result, and we have responsibility as a public health matter to raise that issue. The responsibility we all have the government media platforms, public messengers to give accurate information.”
WATCH:
Peter Doocy just destroyed the White House's calls for censorship of "disinformation" on live TV.
Psaki did not see this one coming.
Watch the entire video. pic.twitter.com/ITPrMfdPFW
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) July 16, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: And then speaking of misinformation and the announcement from yesterday, for how long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook profiles looking for vaccine misinformation?
PSAKI: That was quite a loaded and inaccurate question, which I would refute. Well, Peter, first of all, as you know, we’re in, we’re in a regular touch with with a range of media outlets as we are in regular touch with social media platforms. This is publicly open information, people sharing information online, just as you are all reporting information on your news stations.
REPORTER: Okay, so these 12 people who you have on a list, 12 individuals, do they know that somebody at the Surgeon General’s office is going through their profile?
PSAKI: I’m happy to get you the citation of where that comes from. There’s no secret list, I will tell you that these are people who are sharing information on public platforms on Facebook, information that is traveling, is inaccurate. Our biggest concern here and I frankly think it should be your biggest concern is the number of people who are dying around the country because they’re getting misinformation that is leading them to not take a vaccine, young people, old people, kids, children, this is all being a lot of them are being impacted by misinformation.
REPORTER: The big concern though, I think for a lot of people on Facebook, is that now this is big brother watching you.
PSAKI: They’re more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms? That feels unlikely to me, if you have the data to back that up. I’m happy to discuss it.
REPORTER: And about things that are on Facebook, I looked this morning, there are videos of Dr. Fauci from 2020, before anybody had a vaccine, and he’s out there saying there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. So, is the administration going to contact Facebook and ask them to take that down?
PSAKI: Well, first, I think what Dr. Fauci has said himself, whose been quite public out there is that science evolves, information evolves, and we make that available in a public way to the American people. I have never seen any data to suggest that the vaccines cause infertility. That is information that is irresponsible traveling, okay.
REPORTER: About the science of science evolving, Facebook used to post, used to block people from posting that COVID may have originated from a lab, that is something that this president now admits is a possibility. So is there any concern that things you’re trying to block or have taken down might someday turn out to be accurate?
PSAKI: We don’t take anything down. We don’t block anything. Facebook, and any private sector company makes decisions about what information should be on their platform. Our point is that there is information that is leading to people not taking the vaccine, and people are dying as a result, and we have responsibility as a public health matter to raise that issue. The responsibility we all have the government media platforms, public messengers to give accurate information.
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Source: Dailywire
