'Twitter Files' lead to pushback on Biden's COVID-19 social media efforts

Haisten Willis

December 12, 07:00 AM December 12, 07:00 AM

The second batch of the "Twitter Files" brought with it new questions about the Biden administration's possible role in coordinating with social media companies to censor disfavored voices.

Along with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, conservative commentator Dan Bongino, and Chaya Raichik, the owner of Libs of TikTok, files released Thursday showed that Stanford University professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya landed on Twitter's blacklist over his views on COVID-19.

TWITTER 'SHADOWBANNED' POLITICAL CANDIDATES UNDER OLD OWNERSHIP, MUSK SAYS

Bhattacharya had already sued the Biden administration over its alleged teaming with social media companies to censor scientific opinions on COVID-19 policies. Dubbing it the "Ministry of Truth," he joined a suit with the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana in June.

Armed with fresh information that his account had, in fact, been placed on a trends blacklist, apparently for arguing that lockdowns would harm children, Bhattacharya spoke with WHD News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night.

“It feels like some novel from the 1950s where the House Un-American Committee is meeting to decide who to suppress and I'm some sort of movie star in Hollywood that they’re blacklisting because I'm a communist or something," he said. "It’s ridiculous, and it really hurt public health.”

The professor added that he feels "very strongly" that the government was involved and that real harm resulted from suppressing the discussion.

"If we had an open discussion, Laura, the schools would not have closed in the fall of 2020. If we had an open discussion, the lockdowns would have been lifted much earlier because the data and evidence behind them was so bad," he said on the show.

Bhattacharya was one of three primary signers of the so-called Great Barrington Declaration, along with scientists from Oxford and Harvard, that argued in October 2020 for "focused protection" for those most at risk from the disease, with the rest of society functioning more or less normally.

Freedom of Information Act requests later found that then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins called for a "quick and devastating published takedown" of the idea.

Conservatives have long decried the Biden administration's efforts toward what they call censorship of voices on the Right, including collaboration with social media sites and efforts like the doomed Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board. But while the new Twitter files advance that narrative somewhat, they're far from conclusive, argues the Cato Institute's Will Duffield.

"It’s kind of a mixed bag," he said of the Twitter Files to date. "It shows how moderation tools developed for one purpose can creep into much more politically salient areas without any kind of public debate or deliberation in a way that really undermines trust."

However, Duffield added that there's little revealed in the latest batch that speaks to particular government involvement. He argues that the White House's response to the controversy should be to release any emails the campaign sent Twitter in relation to COVID-19 and the infamous Hunter Biden laptop.

The government took on massively expanded powers at the beginning of the pandemic, initially under the Trump administration and then under the Biden White House, which it has been reluctant to relinquish.

Several pandemic powers have been rescinded only at the pen of a judge, while President Joe Biden is still fighting for others, such as the student loan pause. The Senate recently voted 62-36 to end the state of emergency granting the president expanded powers, which Joe Biden has promised to veto.

Some say censorship has come with the expanded powers.

"We write to continue our investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to stifle lawful First Amendment-protected speech of American citizens in public online settings,” wrote Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Nov. 3. “The Biden Administration continues to suppress free speech and discredit legitimate criticism as mis-, dis-, or mal- information."

GOP committee members have promised to hold hearings and investigations upon taking power in January.

Asked Friday about its involvement with Twitter censorship, specifically the role of former general counsel James Baker, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "We were not involved."

Heritage Foundation research assistant Jake Denton thought the second round of Twitter Files showcased a wide-ranging censorship effort.

"This was an institutionalized censorship apparatus," said Denton, who at one point was banned from Twitter himself. "We have so many examples of this censorship, and I think what Dr. Bhattacharya is voicing is absolutely correct. I think the only question that remains is the scale to which the Biden administration was actually involved in the censorship."

Like Duffield, Denton called on the White House to release its own series of files in order for the public to understand the full story.

"If [the Biden administration is] aware of communications that are likely going to come out, they should say the extent to which they’ve coordinated with Silicon Valley to shape the narrative," he said. "If they have any integrity, they will get ahead of the news cycle and come forward."