Is Facebook Killing People?

Today saw a follow-up to the revelation that the Biden administration is instructing Facebook as to “misinformation” that Facebook should delete from its platform. Joe Biden was asked about his administration’s relationship with Facebook as he departed for Camp David. His response was striking:

President Biden on Friday accused Facebook of “killing people,” just after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is “in regular touch” with the platform to ensure correct “narratives” are promoted — elaborating on her Thursday admission that the White House is “flagging problematic posts” to censor.

Biden was asked about his message for platforms like Facebook as he departed the White House on Friday afternoon for a weekend trip to Camp David.

“They’re killing people. The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people,” Biden said.

According to Biden, Facebook is killing people by not blocking conversation on its platform about the pros and cons of anti-covid vaccines. To say that this is a slippery slope is an understatement. I personally think that news outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post are killing people by supporting the anti-police movement that has indisputably caused increased homicide rates in many cities, by supporting homicidal regimes in places like Iran and Cuba, by promoting the absurd Critical Race Theory that among other things is weakening the U.S. military, by urging higher taxes that are positively correlated with death rates, and no doubt in many other ways.

Moreover, what the New York Times and the Washington Post (and most other media outlets) are doing is far worse than Facebook’s “killing people.” Facebook just allows–or used to, anyway–a free discussion among the many users of its platform. The Times et al. actually promote ideas that kill many thousands of people, and do their best to block opposing ideas that could save lives.

The Biden administration’s leaning on Facebook to stop “killing people” probably isn’t fooling anyone. Social media platforms used to be free, and liberals hate freedom. They want to bring those platforms to heel in service of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, pretty much all the oligarchs who run the major social media platforms are left-wing Democrats. So they have been happy, apparently, to accede to the administration’s flagging of “misinformation” that should be deleted.

For once in their lives, liberals stick up for the private sector by saying that Facebook, Twitter, et al. are not subject to the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech because they are private companies. That is true as far as it goes. But if Facebook and the other social media giants censor user content at the behest of the Biden administration, they become state actors whose actions are subject to the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. Thus, the Democratic Party is on a collision course with the United States Constitution. Given the current composition of the Supreme Court, the Constitution might possibly come out on top.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses