Social Media, the CDC and COVID-19 Collaboration

During the pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that the main players along with social media platforms are "singing from the same hymn book".  Thanks to Judicial Watch, we now have some idea why at least two of the biggest players are hand-in-hand when it comes to the COVID-19 narrative.

 

In this case, Judicial Watch launched legal actions against the United States Department of Health and Human Services to force compliance with the Freedom of Information Act after Judicial Watch sent an FOIA request to the Centers for Disease Control on September 15, 2020, asking for access to :

"Any and all records of communication between CDC officials and/or employees and employees, agents, and/or representatives of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube concerning, regarding, or relating to COVID-19 related content on company platforms. Such records include, but are not limited to, any advice or instructions issued on disinformation re COVID-19."

 

Since the first request was not fulfilled, Judicial Watch filed a second FOIA request on March 9, 2021 as shown here:

 

In response, Judicial Watch received 2,469 pages of documents from the CDC which clearly reveal close cooperation between the CDC and Facebook about the COVID-19 narrative and so-called "misinformation".  Let's look at some of the more interesting documents which show links between Big Tech and the CDC.

  

Here is a document from Google showing the launching of a COVID-19 alert on its products which provides consumers with the CDC's latest recommendations with most of the information redacted (pages 4 to 8 inclusive with pages 6, 7 and 8 being completely redacted):

 

 

Here is another email showing the link between Google's YouTube and the CDC (pages 14 to 16):

 

Here is an email showing the link between LinkedIn and the CDC (pages 27 to 35):

 

Here is an email showing how Facebook supplied the CDC with $2 million worth of advertising credits (second round) dated March 8, 2020, very early in the pandemic (page 36):

 

According to Judicial Watch, there is another email from mid-2020 showing additional funding from Facebook to the CDC for another $1 million worth of advertising.

 

Here is another email from the CDC to Facebook wondering if Facebook needed any assistance in providing credible content for coronavirus searches on Facebook dated January 31, 2020: (page 39)

 

Here is an email from Facebook and Instagram to the CDC regarding a product solution to support the CDC's efforts to get targeted information to specific populations (page 40):

 

Here is an email exchange between WhatsApp and the CDC offering support for the CDC's narrative on the COVID-19 issue (page 172 - 173):

 

I believe that is enough for this posting.  As you can see, right from the very beginning of the pandemic (and even before it was officially proclaimed by the WHO), the world's most influential social media companies picked their narrative which was in sharp contrast to the narrative of the Trump Administration and worked hand-in-hand with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that the CDC's narrative on COVID-19 remained dominant in their online ecosystem.  This goes a long way to explaining why there has been so little long-lasting coverage of dissenting views (i.e. the heavy-handed use of censorship) on the science of the pandemic from the other side of the narrative and why all of the social media outlets seem to be using the same playbook.