President Joe Biden's White House influenced Amazon in March 2021 to restrict books that expressed skepticism about coronavirus vaccines, according to emails obtained by the House Judiciary Committee.
Amazon and White House officials corresponded from March 2nd to March 12th and met on March 9th. according to to email. Amazon ultimately stopped promoting anti-vaccine books and limited the visibility of anti-vaccine books after criticism from the White House. (Related article: 'Exposing corruption': Senate Republicans target Biden as DHS 'censor' agency)
Amazon Files – “Feeling pressure from the White House”
Subpoena for internal documents @judiciaryGOP & @weaponized show it @Amazon It bowed to President Biden's pressure to censor books.
🧵 Thread:
— Congressman Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
“Who can I turn to about sophisticated propaganda, misinformation and disinformation? [on] Amazon? ” Andy Slavitt, former White House senior advisor on coronavirus response Asked In an email on March 2nd. Slavitt lamented that when you search for “vaccines” under books on Amazon, another search result is “concerns.” Email same day.
In a related email later that day, Slavitt noted that there had been no “warning” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the specific book about vaccines.
One employee wondered if the White House wanted the company to remove certain books from Amazon's website or to exclude certain books from search results. .
“it is [Biden] Are the admins asking for books to be removed or are they more concerned with search results/order (or both)?” Employee Asked In an email on March 9th.
Amazon had held off on taking action on these books due to concerns about public perception. according to In an email on March 2nd. But it “felt pressure from the White House.” according to In an email on March 12th.
In the same email about feeling the heat from the White House, the company was considering ways to “reduce the visibility” of anti-vaccine books.
The company eventually succeeded in “enabling” it.[ing] On March 9, do not promote anti-vaccine books whose primary purpose is to convince readers that vaccines are unsafe or ineffective. We will discuss additional handling options for these books with you. ” I have written In another email on March 12th.
The White House also pressured YouTube to suppress COVID-19 vaccine information in April 2021. document Previously shown on the House Judiciary Committee program. Robert Flaherty, Biden's former director of digital strategy, told YouTube he wants to make adjustments to what the platform is doing to curb anti-vaccine content.
Additionally, the White House used its influence to get Facebook to censor related content in 2021, according to additional emails obtained by the committee.
Amazon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news distribution service, is available free of charge to legitimate news publishers with large audiences. All republished articles must include our logo, reporter byline, and DCNF affiliation. If you have any questions about our guidelines or our partnership, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
