Meta asks Facebook oversight board whether COVID-19 misinformation policies are still 'appropriate'



Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has asked its oversight board to review whether the platform's COVID-19 misinformation policies are still "appropriate," signaling the company may take a step back from censoring entire categories of false claims about the virus.

In January 2020, Facebook adopted a sweeping misinformation policy that purported to remove false claims about the emerging pandemic that "presented unique risks to public health and safety." The company banned posts that compared the coronavirus to the flu, for example, or those that promoted off-label use of drugs like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin or raised questions about the lab-leak origins theory of the virus. The company has also targeted skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccines.

As a result of these policies, Meta removed more than 25 million pieces of content since the start of the pandemic, said Nick Clegg, Meta president of Global Affairs, in a blog post.

"Meta began removing false claims about masking, social distancing and the transmissibility of the virus. In late 2020, when the first vaccine became available, we also began removing further false claims, such as the vaccine being harmful or ineffective. Meta’s policy currently provides for removal of 80 distinct false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines," Clegg wrote.

But now, Clegg wrote that "the time is right" for Meta to reconsider its heavy-handed censorship policies.

"The world has changed considerably since 2020. We now have Meta’s COVID-19 Information Center, and guidance from public health authorities is more readily available. Meta’s COVID-19 Information Center has connected over two billion people across 189 countries to helpful, authoritative COVID-19 information," Clegg wrote.

Acknowledging that the pandemic has "evolved" with the successful development and widespread use of vaccines, as well as better information from public health authorities, Clegg wrote that Meta is seeking an advisory opinion on whether it should continue to label or take down content that promotes COVID-19 misinformation.

"Meta is fundamentally committed to free expression and we believe our apps are an important way for people to make their voices heard. But some misinformation can lead to an imminent risk of physical harm, and we have a responsibility not to let this content proliferate," Clegg wrote.

"The policies in our Community Standards seek to protect free expression while preventing this dangerous content. But resolving the inherent tensions between free expression and safety isn’t easy, especially when confronted with unprecedented and fast-moving challenges, as we have been in the pandemic. That’s why we are seeking the advice of the Oversight Board in this case. Its guidance will also help us respond to future public health emergencies."

Meta's oversight board consists of an international team of independent academics, law professors, journalists, human rights activists, and other experts with backgrounds related to global politics and digital content moderation. The purpose of the board is to review appeals to Facebook's content moderation decisions and independently determine whether Meta made the right decision according to its own policies. While its decisions are "binding," Meta remains responsible for following through with the board's decisions.

Most notably, the oversight board ruled in May 2021 that Facebook's decision to suspend former President Donald Trump was "justified," but that the company was wrong to suspend him indefinitely.

Bill Maher blasts pandemic misinformation spread by health officials, delivers laundry list of things the medical-industrial complex got wrong



Liberal talk show host Bill Maher has had an awakening about the COVID-19 pandemic in recent months. Maher ripped the legacy media for "scaring the s**t" out of people over COVID-19. He slammed those "on the left" who "politicized" the antiparasitic drug ivermectin. Maher skewered "pain in the a** blue states" for stringent COVID-19 restrictions while praising red states as a "joy." Maher trashed Democrats for pandemic rules that he classified as "mindless bureaucracy."

On the latest episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher," the left-leaning political commentator took on the medical-industrial complex over things it has gotten wrong in the past and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maher urged that we "focus on helping the vulnerable stay safe and let the rest of us get back to living normal lives."

Maher referenced the numerous European countries that have loosened or ended their pandemic restrictions.

He called the pandemic limitations that have been put on kids – who have a very high COVID-19 survivor rate – "unnecessary and horrible."

"There's always going to be another variant," he stated.

Maher said he is skeptical of the medical establishment because he has seen how it handled the AIDS endemic, and how there was fearmongering that the virus would kill millions.

Maher cited a recent study out of Johns Hopkins University that found lockdowns "had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality" but "imposed enormous economic and social costs." He mocked, "Okay, that’s kind of a big one to get wrong."

"Last July, President Biden said, 'You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.' Well, I already knew that was wrong then, and now we all do," Maher said of the president's remarks which have been fact-checked and found to be "exaggerated."

"The former Director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, believes COVID originated in a lab, and now our intelligence agencies agree, it might have," the HBO host continued. "But for months on social media, it was banned to even discuss it."

"Look, I’m not saying the medical establishment isn’t trying to figure s**t out, or that they’re corrupt — although there is some of that," Maher said.

"But how about just wrong? Wrong a lot. Wrong about HIV, wrong about lockdowns, wrong about kids, wrong about how you couldn’t get it if you were vaccinated," he continued.

Maher said there is no research that outdoor transmission is likely or common, then lampooned California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for flouting COVID-19 rules at the NFC Championship Game at SoFi Stadium.

Maher listed things that the science has changed completely over time.

"I’m just asking, how much wrong do you get to be while still holding the default setting for people who represent the science? Eat eggs, then don’t, then do," Maher said. "Take aspirin, then don’t, then do. The food pyramid, really? Bread and milk every day? Fifteen years ago, they were recommending trans fats. Now, they’re illegal, just like almost a hundred prescription drugs which were once called 'safe and effective' and then yanked off the market because they were not."

"We’ve had this problem in medicine for a long time," he added. "The same people who, in private care, always say, get a second opinion, want to allow only one in the public debate."

"But plainly, the medical-industrial complex has not earned the right to claim monopoly status on information about this virus or medicine in general," Maher concluded. "Yes, free speech has allowed people to hear misinformation sometimes. And a lot of it was yours."

(WARNING: Explicit language)

New Rule: Apply Precision to the Pandemic | Real Time (HBO) www.youtube.com

Justice Sotomayor stuns court observers with dubious COVID-19 claims



Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor astonished critics during oral arguments on Friday by making numerous dubious claims about COVID-19.

Court observers watching arguments for and against the Biden administration's employer vaccine mandate expressed shock when the justice, who attended arguments virtually, falsely claimed that 100,000 children are hospitalized and in "serious condition" from COVID-19 in the United States.

“We have hospitals that are almost at full capacity with people severely ill on ventilators. We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators,” Sotomayor claimed.

Here is Justice Sotomayor saying that "hospitals are almost all full capacity" and there are "over 100,000 children" hospitalized with covid "many on ventilators.\n\nNone of those things are true. Not even close.pic.twitter.com/MqWEL2UvJg
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1641572971

Critics were quick to point out Sotomayor's numbers were incorrect. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, there are 3,342 pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that the average number of children admitted to the hospital per day with COVID-19 was 776.

The total number of children hospitalized with COVID between Aug. 2020 and Jan. 4, 2022, is 81,923, according to the CDC.

This is just absolutely astonishing. "100,000 children in serious condition," per Sotomayor. Where do these people obtain their misinformation? The current national pediatric COVID census per HHS is 3,342. Many/most incidental.
— Phil Kerpen (@Phil Kerpen) 1641570918
Justice Sotomayor\u2019s comment on 100,000 children in serious condition with covid is such a flagrantly untrue statement she should have to correct it after the argument. It\u2019s embarrassing for the Supreme Court to allow that factual inaccuracy to occur in an oral argument.https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1479481779643895816\u00a0\u2026
— Clay Travis (@Clay Travis) 1641572790

While there has been a spike in children who have been hospitalized with COVID-19, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci explained last week that many children are being admitted to the hospital for unrelated ailments and then are testing positive for the virus.

“First of all, quantitatively, you’re having so many more people, including children, who are getting infected. And even though hospitalization among children is much, much lower on a percentage basis than hospitalizations for adults, particularly elderly individuals,” Fauci said on MSNBC on Dec. 30. “When you have such a large volume of infections among children, even with a low level of rate of infection, you’re going to still see a lot more children who get hospitalized."

"But the other important thing is that if you look at the children who are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID," Fauci explained. "And what we mean by that — if a child goes in the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID. And they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual. When in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that. So it’s overcounting the number of children who are, quote, 'hospitalized with COVID,' as opposed to because of COVID."

Sotomayor made several other unfounded claims about the virus. At one point, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Businesses — the group challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's mandate — noted that the OSHA mandate was implemented when the Delta variant was the most prevalent variant in the U.S. and that the now-dominant Omicron variant causes less severe disease.

Sotomayor interrupted, claiming, "Counsel, those numbers show that Omicron is as deadly and causes as much serious disease in the unvaccinated as Delta did."

J. Sotomayor says over 100K children in serious condition, "many on ventilators" #SCOTUS
— Shannon Bream (@Shannon Bream) 1641570700

On the contrary, research suggests that Omicron causes less severe disease than previous variants of the virus. The New York Times reported on Dec. 31 that animal studies found Omicron is mainly an upper respiratory disease that produced less damaging infections to the lungs. Those findings followed early studies of human patients with Omicron that suggested the virus causes less severe disease, especially in vaccinated people.

Justice Sotomayor also claimed that hospitals are nearing capacity.\n\nShe also asked "Why is a human spewing a virus not like a machine spewing sparks?" \n\nIncredible performance all around.
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1641575738

Other justices appointed by Democrat presidents made equally extraordinary and incorrect statements about COVID-19.

Justice Stephen Breyer claimed there were "750 million new cases yesterday, or close to that." The actual number was 727,863, and the daily average cases reported for Jan. 6 was 610,989, according to the New York Times.

Justice Breyer says that there were "750 million new covid cases yesterday"\n\nThere are 330 million people who live in America which means everyone apparently got covid twice in the last 24 hours.pic.twitter.com/rzMf8OzAlj
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1641572607

Breyer also wrongly suggested that hospitals in the U.S. are nearly over capacity because of COVID-19 patients, which is not true.

Breyer: "Hospitals are full almost to the point of the maximum."\n\nThese people know absolutely nothing. Zero.pic.twitter.com/F5z3Hzz6IR
— Phil Kerpen (@Phil Kerpen) 1641568600

Justice Elena Kagan piled on with a statement about how COVID-19 vaccination is the best way for people to prevent the spread of the virus. While the COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. have been found to prevent severe disease and death in most cases, the CDC warns that "anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others."

Kagan: "We know the best way to prevent spread is for people to get vaccinated."\n\nKakistocracy.\n\nThere is literally zero evidence that these vaccines prevent Omicron infections.
— Phil Kerpen (@Phil Kerpen) 1641568391

Additionally, the CDC says that fully vaccinated people who contract a Delta variant breakthrough infection "can spread the virus to others," albeit for a reportedly shorter time than unvaccinated people.

The Supreme Court will decide whether to issue a stay preventing the Biden administration from enforcing an OSHA temporary emergency standard, which mandates that businesses with 100 or more employees must require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to involuntary weekly virus testing. Challengers contest that the Labor Department does not have the constitutional authority to both create and enforce the mandate.

Sotomayor tipped her hand on this issue, repeatedly arguing that the term "vaccine mandate" was inaccurate because the OSHA standard includes the testing option.

"There's no requirement here. It's not a vaccine mandate. It's something totally different," Sotomayor said.

YouTube says it has taken down more than 1 million videos for COVID-19 misinformation since pandemic began



Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020, YouTube has removed more than 1 million videos related to "dangerous coronavirus information," the company said Wednesday.

The removed videos included content that YouTube judged was misinformation about the pandemic, like promotion of a false cure or videos calling the pandemic a hoax, Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said in a blog post Wednesday.

Such videos violated the company's policy prohibiting "any videos that can directly lead to egregious real world harm," Mohan said.

He explained that while combatting misinformation remains a priority for the company, with nearly 10 million videos removed each quarter, simply removing videos does not do enough to prevent the some 2 billion users on YouTube's platform from accessing "harmful misinformation." In addition to removing videos, YouTube is "reducing the spread of videos with harmful misinformation" and manipulating search results to be "optimized for quality."

"Speedy removals will always be important but we know they're not nearly enough. Instead, it's how we also treat all the content we're leaving up on YouTube that gives us the best path forward," Mohan said.

Mohan acknowledged that YouTube's policies are unlikely to satisfy critics on both the left and the right.

Conservatives have accused YouTube and other tech companies with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter of censoring content based on political biases. Conservative content creators have had accounts suspended for running afoul of content moderation policies targeting politically incorrect "hate speech," or have been penalized for sharing controversial opinions about the 2020 presidential election, or the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans have accused tech companies of muzzling free speech and states like Florida and Texas have acted to ban social media censorship.

Progressives, on the other hand, believe that tech companies are not doing enough to limit the spread of misinformation on social media, and have threatened to remove the liability protections tech companies enjoy for failures to censor information they claim will endanger people.

Mohan acknowledged concerns about the "chilling effect on free speech" that comes from an "overly aggressive approach towards removals." He said social media companies need a "clear set of facts" in order to identify bad content, and that it is now always easy to know what is true.

"For COVID, we rely on expert consensus from health organizations like the CDC and WHO to track the science as it develops. In most other cases, misinformation is less clear-cut. By nature, it evolves constantly and often lacks a primary source to tell us exactly who's right," he wrote.

"In the absence of certainty, should tech companies decide when and where to set boundaries in the murky territory of misinformation? My strong conviction is no."

He stated society is better off with "open debate."

"One person's misinfo is often another person's deeply held belief, including perspectives that are provocative, potentially offensive, or even in some cases, include information that may not pass a fact-checker's scrutiny," Mohan continued. "Yet, our support of an open platform means an even greater accountability to connect people with quality information. And we will continue investing in and innovating across all our products to strike a sensible balance between freedom of speech and freedom of reach."

White House denies 'spying' on social media, says users sharing  misinformation should be banned from all platforms



White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday denied that the federal government is "spying" on certain individuals' social media accounts to look for "misinformation" about COVID-19, but also said that a person who is banned from one platform for sharing misinformation should be banned from all of them.

During Friday's press conference, Psaki said false claims that COVID-19 vaccines may contribute to infertility is an example of the kind of misinformation the government is looking to censor. Then, she listed several steps the Biden administration believes social media must take to limit the spread of misinformation.

Among these steps, Psaki said social media companies should create "robust enforcement strategies that bridge properties."

"You shouldn't be banned from one platform and not others for providing misinformation," she said.

PSAKI: If you're banned on one social media platform, you should be banned on other social media platforms. https://t.co/81eOCiRc68

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) 1626457097.0

Psaki's comments come a day after she admitted that the White House is partnering with Facebook and potentially other social media companies to identify "problematic posts" online that spread "disinformation."

Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked how long the administration has "been spying" on people's Facebook profiles searching for misinformation.

"That was quite a loaded and inaccurate question, which I would refute," Psaki said.

"We're in a regular touch with a range of media outlets as we are in regular touch with social media platforms," she continued, adding that posts on social media are "publicly open information."

On the previous day, Psaki said that the White House is aware of 12 people who are responsible for spreading almost 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms. She told Doocy this is not a "secret list" and that these are people who "are sharing information on public platforms on Facebook, information that is traveling, is inaccurate."

"Our biggest concern here, and I frankly think it should be your biggest concern, is the number of people who are dying around the country because they're getting misinformation that is leading them to not take a vaccine," Psaki asserted.

When Doocy noted that Americans might be concerned that "big brother" is watching them on social media, Paski incredulously responded, "they're more concerned about that than people dying across the country because of a pandemic where misinformation is traveling on social media platforms?"

"That feels unlikely to me," she said.

Psaki also brushed aside concerns that the government is partnering with private companies to censor information that may have once been considered false but later turned out to be possible. Doocy brought up the example of Facebook's policy reversal on claims that COVID-19 may have been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"We don't take anything down, we don't block anything," she insisted. "Facebook and any other private sector company makes decisions about what information should be on their platform. Our point is that there is information that is leading to people not taking the vaccine and people are dying as a result. And we have a responsibility, as a public health matter, to raise that issue."

Psaki said this responsibility was shared by government, media, and social media platforms.

"The vaccines are safe, they are effective, if people take them they will save their life in many cases," she said in response to a question from another reporter.