Feds & Corporate Centurions Turn Up The Censorship Nitro

P. Gardner Goldsmith | March 8, 2022

A new confluence of shocking government and corporate action has exposed what appears to be the darkest threat to US freedom of speech and the press. And if the moves are not fought, the shadow of long-term American authoritarianism looms large.

The walls are closing in faster than before.

Currently, tax-funded Biden hacks are fervently frothing to crack down on the freedom to share information.

One attack comes as many Americans fight innumerable government muzzles on scientific debate, attacks on freedom of association, and attacks on dissent perpetrated by local, state, and federal politicians, as well as government-friendly corporate social media.

It comes by way of the wholly reliable Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who, as The New York Times’ Davey Alba blithely reports:

…on Thursday formally requested that the major tech platforms submit information about the scale of Covid-19 misinformation on social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems.

A request for information from the surgeon general’s office demanded that tech platforms send data and analysis on the prevalence of Covid-19 misinformation on their sites, starting with common examples of vaccine misinformation documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How, exactly is Murthy defining “misinformation?”

Would those be the multitudinous examples of misinformation that the CDC and its own employees spewed forth onto the willing accomplice media, and at press conferences, using OUR money to do so?

Would that be his own errant claim about natural immunity not being better and longer-lasting than the mRNA jabs? Even the CDC’s Rochelle Walensky was forced to admit the truth on that issue, back in January.

Adds Alba:

The notice asks the companies to submit ‘exactly how many users saw or may have been exposed to instances of Covid-19 misinformation,’ as well as aggregate data on demographics that may have been disproportionately exposed to or affected by the misinformation.

Ahh, yes. Aggregate data. The euphemism for “we’re telling you we won’t see personal info,” when, in order to get the info and know the sources of the posts, the personal identities of the posters on social media must be known and confirmed.

Has Dr. Murthy ever heard of the Fourth Amendment? Or is his attempt to get the corporations to hand him the data enough of a mask for him to feel comfortable being a complete authoritarian shill for the ever changing government narratives about COVID-19?

By the way, those sarcastic questions are posed simply to reveal the government hypocrisy and willingness to define misinformation however they want, whenever they want, for whatever purpose they want – and Murthy’s purpose is murky and seemingly very much tilted towards intimidating citizens, setting precents for greater data collection, and making sure Big Tech plays along.

But the questions posed and the hypocrisy they point out are not the most important facet of the Murthy announcement. The most important facet is that an agent of the US government has made such a “request” in the first place.

 

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