For all the talk about the GOP embracing fascism, it seems Democrats are already there. From arming the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to prosecuting conservatives, pro-life activists, former President Donald Trump and his associates, to engaging in political projects aimed at preventing the establishment of our Constitution – to paraphrase George Will before he left the party – the left is no longer ashamed to show its authoritarian face. We have sheltered spaces and speech codes. The pronoun police is the novel Stasi.
Now we have the government and substantial companies working together to censor books. They were already building a system of influencing public opinion and shading those who questioned the dominant liberal narratives on social media. Twitter files revealed the FBI’s collaboration with Silicon Valley to essentially construct a system to control the sharing of certain viewpoints. This is what China is doing and it is terrifying. Now House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are releasing emails in which the Biden White House appears to be urging Amazon to censor some books about Covid-19. At least they were forced to do so (via NY Post Office):
The Biden administration pressured Amazon to censor books about Covid-19 vaccines in early 2021, citing concerns that the material contained “propaganda” and “disinformation,” internal company emails published by the Republican appear to show Jim Jordan (Ohio State).
The documents were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Federal Government Armaments Subcommittee through a subpoena, Jordan said in Monday’s X-thread, which he called the “AMAZON FILES.”
“Who can we talk to about the high level of propaganda and disinformation and disinformation [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, a former White House senior adviser on the Covid-19 response, wrote to the online retailer in an email published on March 2, 2021 by Jordan.
“If you search the books for ‘vaccines’ I’ll see what comes up,” Slavitt wrote in another message the same day. “I haven’t looked further, but if it’s just appearances, it’s disturbing.”
[…]
Amazon officials initially balked at making a “manual intervention” to remove some book titles from publication, arguing that it would be “too visible” and would require further scrutiny.
“We will not be conducting a manual intervention today,” reads an email between Amazon executives. “The PR/team is very confident that this is too visible and will further worsen the Harry/Sally narrative (which is apparently being covered by Fox News today) and will not solve the problem in the long run…due to the behavior of the associate’s customers.”
Amazon officials, whose name was redacted from the email, then note that another person at the company, whose name was also redacted, “gave very direct instructions to the teams to be uninteresting and not do anything that is observable and will attract more attention.” ”
Never-before-published internal emails subpoenaed by @WymiarJusticeGOP reveal that the Biden White House pressured Amazon to censor books expressing views the White House did not approve of.
“Is [Biden] The administrator is asking us to delete books”? pic.twitter.com/ZsAN9BZAcX
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
On March 2, 2021, Slavitt sent an email demanding to know who he and his White House colleagues could be talking to at the company about “the high level of propaganda and disinformation and disinformation [sic] Amazon?” pic.twitter.com/aWSMP3aSOc
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Initially, Amazon decided to refrain from “manual intervention” to censor books.
Why? Not because of a commitment to free speech, but because it would be “too observable” to the American public and could draw criticism from conservative media. pic.twitter.com/166wXiPsha
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
A week later, on March 9, 2021, Amazon met with the White House.
Internal Amazon documents reveal “Amazon’s most critical talking points” during the meeting.
One of the key questions was whether the Biden White House wanted to ban the books or simply hide them deep in search results: pic.twitter.com/wnWj9eCyJf
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
What was the purpose of this meeting with the Biden White House?
To see if “the admin is asking us to remove the books, or is he more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” pic.twitter.com/I8qd3WCeY4
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
What did the online bookstore do after the White House criticized Amazon for a week?
Starting March 9 – the same day as the White House meeting – Amazon turned on a “Do Not Promote” option for books expressing the view that vaccines are not effective. pic.twitter.com/8YEXjAL8BD
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Correct.
Amazon bowed to pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech. @WymiarJusticeGOP AND @Armament they are investigating.https://t.co/P1hlB3c5WO
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the Federal Government’s Special Subcommittee on Arms, said both bodies will investigate the incident.
The Biden White House appears to be in favor of book bans.
