Thread by @ryanjtracy

🧵 Previously unreported emails show Facebook’s 2021 decision to remove posts claim Covid-19 was man-made came as a result of White House jawboning. “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more”… wsj.com/articles/faceb…

We already knew the WH was jawboning FB during 2021 to combat false vaccine info. Internal emails show FB resisted. E.g., it thought the WH wanted takedowns of even humorous posts on vaccine hesitancy. FB worried that would make things worse, perhaps fueling conspiracy theories.

But at other moments, FB felt compelled to act. @nickclegg wrote in July 2021 that the company had “bigger fish to fry” with the administration - E.g. ensuring cross-border data flows from the EU. FB later came up with new consequences for users who promoted vaccine skepticism.

@nickclegg The emails were obtained by @JudiciaryGOP and viewed by the Journal. FB declined to comment. @PressSec says the administration was working toward vaccine adoption and other public health goals, but social media companies make their own content decisions.

@nickclegg @JudiciaryGOP @PressSec .@HouseJudiciary Dems note the Trump administration jawboned social media companies, too - and argue that the GOP probe itself is designed to intimidate FB into loosening content policies.

@nickclegg @JudiciaryGOP @PressSec @HouseJudiciary @jimjordan says FB is expected to continue to produce documents. “This is just the beginning of the story.”