White House pushed Amazon to ban ‘anti-vax’ books

The Biden administration pressured retail giant Amazon to limit access to books that questioned the safety or effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic, according to new documents released by a congressional committee.

Internal emails released on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) by Judiciary Committee chairman Republican Jim Jordan revealed Amazon put “anti-vax books” on a “Do Not Promote” order soon after meeting with White House officials, suggesting the government’s efforts to stifle debate surrounding vaccines on Twitter and Facebook, extended to other platforms.

“Is the Admin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” read one internal company email sent in advance of a White House meeting in March 2021.

“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, a former White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response, wrote to the online retailer.

In March, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana alleging that the Biden administration colluded with social media companies to suppress the freedom of speech related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you search for ‘vaccines’ under books, I see what comes up,” Mr Slavitt added in a follow up message. “I haven’t looked beyond that but if that’s what’s on the surface, it’s concerning.”

Mr Jordan dubbed the email batch the Amazon Files, mimicking the title Elon Musk gave to swathes of emails he released to the public after his purchase of the social media platform in 2022, which suggested White House officials had put pressure on the company to censor individuals and views it didn’t like.

“That’s right. Amazon caved to the pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech,” Jordan said in a social media post.

Tom Fitton, president of conservative think tank Judicial Watch, said “officials involved in this and other censorship should be under criminal and civil investigations!” on social media.

The latest set of emails, which did not include references to particular books, suggested Amazon staff initially resisted White House pressure, arguing in emails that its corporate guidelines did “not specifically address content about vaccines” and that “retailers are different than social media communities”.

In another email Amazon staff said they should not impose a “manual intervention” to remove certain book titles from appearing, arguing that it would be “too visible” and lead to further scrutiny from conservative news outlets, which had campaigned against censorship of viewpoints critical of Covid-19 vaccines.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/white-house-pushed-amazon-to-ban-antivax-books-emails/news-story/18a7c32b639279f46567bf7aaeecc720

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