Jim Jordan details the wild scheme between Biden officials and Amazon to censor 'sensitive' anti-vaccine materials - as White House denies being 'coercive'

Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan released fresh details about the close collaboration between the Biden White House and Amazon to deplatform books they deemed 'sensitive' - as White House officials insisted they never 'coerced' private companies.

On March 2, 2021, White House advisor Andrew Slavitt reached out to Amazon. 'Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation or disinformation at the White House?' 

Amazon initially resisted White House pressure to restrict anti-vaccine material. 

'We will not be doing a manual intervention today,' one email between Amazon executives read. 'The team/PR feels very strongly that it is too visible, and will further compound the Harry/Sally narrative (which is getting the Fox News treatment today apparently), and won't fix the problem long-term … because of customer behavior associates.' 

Jordan released fresh details about the close collaboration between the Biden White House and Amazon to deplatform books they deemed 'sensitive' - as White House officials insisted they never 'coerced' private companies

And ahead of a March 9, 2021 meeting between the White House and Amazon officials, a 'pre-brief' email to Amazon employees emphasized a 'top talking point': 'Is the admin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order or both?' 

But the very day of the meeting Amazon immediately adopted a 'do not promote' category for anti-vaccine books listed on its website.

'The impetus for this request is criticism from the Biden administration about sensitive books we're giving prominent placement to, and should be handled urgently,' an Amazon official wrote in an email to other staffers. 

In another internal email, an Amazon official expresses urgency in making the changes to shadow-ban anti-vaccine content 'due to criticism from the Biden people.' 

'The next 4 months of vaccine response/adoption are going to be critical,' the official writes. 

They suggested removing the books from sale entirely, because 'search data shows customers who buy this content are looking for specific books and using high intent queries, which means customers will likely continue to consume this content in spite of our warnings.' 

By March 12, Amazon wanted to take further steps to crack down on anti-vaccine books because they were 'feeling pressure from the White House Taskforce.' 

Amazon wasn't alone in bending to the Biden administration's wishes to deplatform content that could sow doubt about the Covid-19 vaccines - Twitter, now X, and Facebook felt the heat too. 

Jordan went after Slavitt and Rob Flaherty, a key White House communications staffer, in a censorship hearing on Wednesday.

Jordan showcased emails between the White House and Facebook, including one in which Flaherty allegedly wrote, 'My bias is to kick people off the platform.' 

'The White House is telling a social media platform — one of the biggest ones in the world — you should kick people off your platform if they're saying things we don't like,' Jordan said.

Flaherty and Slavitt denied that they had been coercive. 

'There were no threats, and there were no consequences,' Flaherty said.

'We had no intention in coercing any social media companies into taking any action,' Slavitt said. 'We never received any indication that our dialogue ever was interpreted that way. I want to be clear that they made their own decisions.'

The Judiciary Committee shared a 98-page interim report of the 'censorship-industrial complex,' which detailed the tens of thousands of emails between Biden officials and Facebook, YouTube and Amazon, claiming the White House had infringed on free speech. 

Flaherty insisted private companies were the 'ultimate decisionmakers,' but 'that does not mean that communication staff cannot ask or even implore those companies to address misinformation on their platforms.' 

A court ruled last July that the White House could not communicate with private companies about deplatforming content, but that ruling was blocked. Still, the White House has scaled back its outreach to tech companies. 

But the FBI has resumed sharing intelligence about foreign influence campaigns with those companies. 

'What are they up to now that's going to restrict speech and keep important information from the American people?' Jordan questioned. 

Rep. Dan Goldman, R-N.Y., suggested Republicans wanted to cease communications with tech companies so that Russia could help Donald Trump get elected. 

'They want to chill the government from actually interacting with private companies as we come upon an election in November of 2024,' he said.

'If that can't happen, then Donald Trump and these Republicans benefit because Russia will help them,' Goldman said. 'That is why we are here, and that is why this is bogus.'

A thread of documents shared by Jordan last year showed Facebook had caved to pressure from the White House to remove posts that questioned the vaccine. 

It began with an email from April 2021 to Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

It stated: 'We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House' to remove posts.

An additional April 2021 email from Facebook's president for global affairs Nick Clegg to his team said that Biden advisor Slavitt was 'outraged . . . that [Facebook] did not remove' a particular post.'

The post had to do with the COVID-19 vaccines that the White House wanted labeled as 'misinformation' and removed off the social media platform.

Clegg responded to the White House saying that removing that content would 'represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US.'

According to additional emails, Facebook sought to 'repair' its relationship with the Biden administration.

'Given what is at stake here, it would also be a good idea if we could regroup and take stock of where we are in our relations with the [White House], and our internal methods too,' Clegg wrote in another email.