Senior Republicans are demanding to know why Facebook censored posts that shared the COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis after it emerged that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was in e-mail contact with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's leading coronavirus scientist.
Republicans on the House judiciary and oversight committees have written to Zuckerberg asking him to hand over all documents and communications between Facebook employees and U.S. government officials.
They accuse the federal government of using a private company to skirt First Amendment protections.
'In light of Facebook's subsequent censorship of certain COVID-19 content - including content about the pandemic's origin - these communications with Dr Fauci raise the prospect that the federal government induced Facebook to censor certain free speech in violation of the First Amendment,' write ranking members Jim Jordan and James Comer.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been asked to provide information about contacts between staff and government officials as Republicans accuse him of censoring information on the origins of COVID-19
Rep. Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has written to Zuckerberg demanding information about contacts between Facebook and government officials as Republicans probe the social media platform's stance on misinformation
James Comer, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, signed the letter accusing Facebook and federal officials of violating First Amendment protections
Ranking members of the House judiciary and oversight are demanding to know more about why Facebook censored posts supporting the idea that COVID-19 was manmade
Like other social media platforms, Facebook has grappled with how best to control the spread of misinformation.
At first it announced a policy to promote accurate information and put warnings against claims that might be harmful.
In October it banned adverts discouraging vaccination and later started removing posts that had been debunked by public health experts.
Last month, it announced it had removed more than 14m pieces of misinformation, including content about exaggerated cures or fake preventative measures.
But for critics of Facebook, the lab leak hypothesis illustrates the problems with that sort of intervention.
The idea that the coronavirus had escaped from a Chinese laboratory was widely dismissed by scientists until recently. They said it was far more likely to have emerged in nature, leaping from an animal host to human - like previous coronavirus infections.
But two weeks ago, when the scientific mainstream changed course and President Joe Biden said the lab leak hypothesis needed more investigation, Facebook announced it would stop removing the claim that COVID-19 was man-made or manufactured.
In their letter, Jordan and Comer said the recent release of Fauci's emails suggested co-ordination between Facebook and the federal government.
'Facebook's censorship decisions did not occur in a vacuum, and there are indications that Facebook may have made content-moderation decisions regarding COVID-19 at the behest of certain government policies and positions,' their letter stated.
Security personnel keep watch outside Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, earlier this year
Republicans have stepped up their attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci since the release of a slew of his emails, demanding to know how much he knew about research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and whether he had something to hide
'The federal government appears to have had significant contact with Facebook about COVID-19 during the pandemic.
'You emailed personally with Dr. Fauci to enlist him in Facebook’s “Coronavirus Information Hub” and encouraged him to provide a video “because people trust and want to hear from experts rather than just a bunch of agencies and political leaders.”'
They gave Zuckerberg two weeks to respond.
Fauci has faced an avalanche of criticism from conservatives since a cache of emails was published in response to a freedom of information request.
They say communications show he was warned that COVID-19 could have escaped from a lab early in the pandemic but failed to take the warnings seriously.
Instead they allege he was part of a cover-up among officials who were aware of U.S. funding for controversial 'gain of function' research at the Wuhan Institue of Virology.
Fauci says the emails have been taken out of context.
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