For all the talk about how the GOP is embracing fascism, it seems the Democrats are already there. From weaponizing the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go after conservatives, pro-life activists, former President Donald Trump, and his associates to engage in political projects that are aimed at rendering our Constitution unable to constitute—to paraphrase George Will there before he left the party—the Left is no longer shy in showing its authoritarian face. We have safe spaces and speech codes. The pronoun police are the new Stasi.
Now, we have the government and big businesses collaborating to censor books. They were already building a system to influence public opinion and shadow-ban those who challenged the prevailing liberal narratives on social media. The Twitter Files exposed the FBI’s operation with Silicon Valley to essentially construct a system that controls the sharing of certain viewpoints. That’s what China does, and it’s scary. Now, House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are publicizing emails in which the Biden White House appears to be telling Amazon to censor some books about COVID. At least, they were pressured to do so (via NY Post):
The Biden administration pressured Amazon to censor books related to COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021 citing concerns that the material contained “propaganda” and “misinformation,” internal company emails released by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) appear to show.
The documents were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government via subpoena, Jordan said in a X thread Monday, which he dubbed, “THE AMAZON FILES.”
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, a former White House senior advisor for COVID-19 response, wrote to the online retailer in a March 2, 2021, email, released by Jordan.
“If you search for ‘vaccines’ under books, I see what comes up,” Slavitt wrote in a follow up message that same day. “I haven’t looked beyond that but if that’s what’s on the surface, it’s concerning.”
[…]
Amazon officials initially balked at performing “a manual intervention” to remove certain book titles from appearing, arguing that it would be “too visible” and lead to further scrutiny.
“We will not be doing a manual intervention today,” an email between Amazon executives reads. “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.”
The Amazon officials, whose name is redacted from the email, then notes that another individual at the company, whose name is also redacted, “gave very direct guidance to the teams to be boring and not do anything that is visible and will draw more attention.”
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Never-before-released internal emails subpoenaed by @JudiciaryGOP reveal that the Biden White House pressured Amazon to censor books that expressed views the White House did not approve of.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
“Is the [Biden] Admin asking us to remove books”? pic.twitter.com/ZsAN9BZAcX
On March 2, 2021, Slavitt fired off an email demanding to know who he and his White House colleagues could talk to at the company about “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” pic.twitter.com/aWSMp3aSOc
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Initially, Amazon decided to hold off on “doing a manual intervention” to censor books.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Why? Not out of any commitment to free speech, but because doing so would be “too visible” to the American public and likely to spur criticism from conservative media. pic.twitter.com/166wXiPsha
A week later, on March 9, 2021, Amazon met with the White House.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Internal Amazon documents reveal Amazon’s “top talking points” going into the meeting.
One of the key questions was whether the Biden White House wanted books banned or just buried deep in the search results: pic.twitter.com/wnWj9eCyJf
What was the purpose of this meeting with the Biden White House?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
To see if “the Admin is asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” pic.twitter.com/I8qd3WCeY4
After the White House spent a week berating Amazon, what did the online bookstore do?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Starting March 9—the same day as its meeting with the White House—Amazon enabled “Do Not Promote” for books that expressed the view that vaccines were not effective. pic.twitter.com/8YEXjAL8BD
That’s right.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Amazon caved to the pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech. @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponization are investigating.https://t.co/P1hlB3c5WO
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, said both bodies will be investigating this incident.
It would seem the Biden White House is pro-book bans.
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