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Censorship

How Government Officials Bully Social Media Companies Into Censorship

A new Cato report sheds light on "jawboning," or attempts by state actors "to sway the decisions of private platforms and limit the publication of disfavored speech."

Liz Wolfe | 9.14.2022 4:30 PM

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a picture of Jen Psaki against a red background with white icons for media companies next to her | Illustration: Lex Villena; Chris Kleponis - CNP/Newscom
(Illustration: Lex Villena; Chris Kleponis - CNP/Newscom)

In July 2021, President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter whether he had any message for platforms like Facebook. "They're killing people," he replied. "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people."

His press secretary at the time, Jen Psaki, and legions of Democrats rushed to his defense, saying Biden was referring to so-called "misinformation" spread on the platform by the "disinformation dozen"—some 12 or so accounts deemed responsible for the vast majority of the platform's vaccine-skeptical content. But Biden, Psaki, and others in the administration have frequently used White House podiums to make bold and inexact claims about the harm posed by social media companies, either implicitly suggesting or more explicitly demanding that these companies change their content moderation practices in line with the administration's preferences.

"Facebook needs to move more quickly to remove harmful violative posts," Psaki said from her official perch, adding that "you shouldn't be banned from one platform and not others for providing misinformation," as if one platform has any control over the decisions made by the other.

This type of government pressure, as well as "bullying, threatening, and cajoling" that attempts "to sway the decisions of private platforms and limit the publication of disfavored speech" is known as jawboning, and is the subject of a new report put out by Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. "Left unchecked, [jawboning] threatens to become normalized as an extraconstitutional method of speech regulation." More:

"Jawboning occurs when a government official threatens to use his or her power—be it the power to prosecute, regulate, or legislate—to compel someone to take actions that the state official cannot. Jawboning is dangerous because it allows government officials to assume powers not granted to them by law."

In summer 2021, for example, "Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on health misinformation, including eight guidelines for platforms," following the Psaki and Biden comments. "On its own, the advisory would have been inoffensive, but statements by other members of the administration suggested sanctions for noncompliant platforms," writes Duffield.

"White House communications director Kate Bedingfield completed the jawboning effort during a Morning Joe interview. Prompted by a question about getting rid of Section 230, she replied, 'we're reviewing that, and certainly they should be held accountable, and I think you've heard the president speak very aggressively about this …' By gesturing at changes to the intermediary liability protections that social media platforms rely on, Bedingfield added a vague threat to the administration's demands. …

By raising the specter of changes to, or the repeal of, Section 230, the Biden administration made a roundabout threat. Repealing Section 230 would not make vaccine misinformation unlawful, but it would harm Facebook by exposing it to litigation over its users' speech. By demanding the removal of misinformation and threatening repeal, the administration sought to bully Facebook into removing speech that the government couldn't touch."

Duffield has worked to track prominent examples of jawboning (database found here, replete with examples of censorship attempts by politicians of both parties). Though "not every demand is paired with a threat," he writes, "all the demands are made in the course of discussions about potential social media regulation."

"In general, we know that a lot of jawboning happens behind closed doors," Duffield tells Reason. "There were, prior to 2016, a couple of high-profile cases like Wikileaks," he notes, "but the current era of normalized platform jawboning really begins after the 2016 election." He highlights Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D–Calif.) social media crackdown attempts on purported Russian disinformation back in 2017, as well as the possibility that Twitter's decision to limit the circulation of the Hunter Biden laptop story was due to how the company had come under fire, trotted before Congress, and subsequently strengthened their hacked materials policy. "If they didn't take that down, and it turns out to be a foreign op, and it changes the course of the election, they're going to be right back testifying in front of Congress, hammered with regulation and fines," noted disinformation researcher Clint Watts, according to the Cato report.

Some platforms have been broadly resistant to government officials' demands, whether explicit or implied. The cloud-based instant messaging service Telegram, Duffield notes, is "notorious for ignoring both requests and court orders," but this is probably due to the platform not being based in the U.S.; it thus has less reason to comply with U.S. laws than platforms like Facebook and Twitter. (Telegram, it's worth noting, is beating out competitors like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, including, interestingly, in both Ukraine and Russia.)

But Telegram's case is sadly an exception to the rule. Whether it's congressional staffers pressuring social media employees to make certain content moderation calls behind closed doors or sitting U.S. senators asking tech CEOs to testify before them—and sit pretty for their grandstanding and hectoring—"it is not the job of Congress to oversee, second guess, or direct the decisions of private intermediaries," writes Duffield. "Such oversight presumes a role in speech regulation that the Constitution specifically denies Congress."

It's not just Section 230, and changes to liability protections that members of Congress and Biden administration officials threaten companies with. "While some changes to Section 230 would change how platforms moderate speech, antitrust would harm or dismember the noncompliant firm," says Duffield.

This may well be the disturbing bipartisan future of jawboning.

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Liz Wolfe is an associate editor at Reason.

CensorshipSocial MediaPoliticsTechnologyTwitterFacebookBiden AdministrationJoe BidenDisinformationMisinformation
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  1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

    The only way to hold government clowns accountable is a vote every 2,4,6 years, which has to stand for everything that might happen until the next election.

    There has to be some way for ordinary citizens to throw politicians in jail for illegal actions, whether it is merely taking bribes or unconstitutional actions like this jawboning. At the same time, this process has to be safe from abuse; as much fun as it would be to tie politicians up in litigation so they couldn't pass any more laws, that's not gonna fly.

    Exit poll? Restrict all elected officials to a single term, and the following election includes a poll: if they don't get 50% approval for past performance, they go to prison until the next election and another poll.

    Rebound? If a random jury acquits the politician, the accuser goes to jail for the remainder of the term.

    I have no other actually useful ideas.

    1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

      Oh, and ...

      The exit poll would be strictly approval or not; not whether the pol took bribes or behaved poorly, merely on whether voters thought he deserved jail or not.

      An actual trial would be judged by 12 random jurors, with no appeal by learned government employees in robes to save their bacon for arcane legal reasons.

      1. Rob Misek   3 years ago

        Criminalize lying.

        1. Rob Misek   3 years ago

          And ask tough questions.

          Government has already bought mainstream media, or is it the other way around.

          Now buying social media to censor truth.

        2. Vernon Depner   3 years ago

          What did your Mommy lie to you about?

        3. Sevo   3 years ago

          You'd be in jail, asshole.

        4. Ted   3 years ago

          If we did, you would be put to death. You should lead with that. It might help you get some traction traction. Since everyone hates Nazis like you.

          1. Rob Misek   3 years ago

            So you agree with me that lying should be criminalized.

            Next time lead with that.

            And start looking for a new religion that doesn’t advocate lying.

    2. Sometimes a Great Notion   3 years ago

      as much fun as it would be to tie politicians up in litigation

      Yeah, one of them will eventually throw a hissy fit and cross the Rubicon.

    3. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

      Term limits, reduced salary, reduced pension, reduced benefits. Accountability for actions, reviewed by an external body, not the current congressional ethics review process. I mean docking pay and benefits when I say accountability. And if all else fails, being pelted with rotting fruit and vegetables on the green might be a strong incentive to do their job and only their job.

  2. Kungpowderfinger   3 years ago

    "Jawboning occurs when a government official threatens to use his or her power—be it the power to prosecute, regulate, or legislate—to compel someone to take actions that the state official cannot. Jawboning is dangerous because it allows government officials to assume powers not granted to them by law."

    Maybe now that a name has been assigned to it, it’ll be easier to condemn.

    All though it really is just fucking censorship, after all.

  3. Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland   3 years ago

    What happened to the last 6 years of reason saying private company?

    1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

      Elon Musk might have to buy Twitter.

  4. Joe Friday   3 years ago

    Now do DeSantis punishing companies with legislation for the speech of their officers, or removing elected officials who say things he doesn't like.

    1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

      Oh wait, they already did -- before this.

      Oh wait, I forgot you are functionally illiterate.

    2. Super Scary   3 years ago

      Well, that takes care the "soft brained" take for this article. Go ahead and head over to the next one now Joe.

      1. TrickyVic (old school)   3 years ago

        Joe's only offended if it's someone he doesn't like doing it.

    3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   3 years ago

      September and August were DeSantis Month. Where have you been? 2022 was the Year of Josh Hawley.

      Frankly, I'm stunned to see Reason jumping on the train it missed in 2015. But sure, come on in, the water's fine.

      1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        It says something when an ostensibly libertarian magazine is almost a decade late in identifying some of the biggest threats to first amendment rights in American history.

    4. Unicorn Abattoir   3 years ago

      Do his speeches make deer explode?

    5. VULGAR MADMAN   3 years ago

      It’s a travesty that he wants to keep teachers from molesting children.

      1. Unicorn Abattoir   3 years ago

        It's getting so bad that the students are taking matters into their own hands

    6. Ted   3 years ago

      We know you’re still angry that he won’t let democrat teachers groom small children, but you just need to suck it up.

  5. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

    If Mark Zuckerberg was truthful last week, the FBI encouraged Facebook (and likely all other social media moguls and left wing media propagandists) to censor truthful information about Hunter Biden's laptop, the problem of government bullying of media is far worse than the examples cited in this article.

    But since Zuckerberg had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy votes for Biden in swing states, and since Zuckerberg's Facebook was censoring info and cancelling accounts for truthful claims about covid (that Fauci and CDC lied about) during the Trump administration, Zuckerberg should have been registered as a Political Action Committee (since he was campaigning against Trump),

    1. Fat Mike's Drug Habit   3 years ago

      "Encouraged" is a very charitable way to put it. It went about the same way the mafia "encourages" people to pay protection money.

      Real nice website you got there, it would be a shame if it were regulated out of existence.

      1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

        So WHO got regulated out of existence? Citation please, and WHY didn't they SUE over this offense?

        Is there ANYONE in the USA who can NOT freely access the lies of Alex Jones and Der TrumpfenFuher? Did any books by Alex Jones and-or Der TrumpfenFuher get banned? Like, holding or reading their books will be PUNISHED? If so… Citation please!

        1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

          Godshall cited the person at the start of this thread.

          Either be stupid or lazy, Sqrlsy. Pick one. Don't be both.

          1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

            So full of shit, Bitch! WHO was punished? Besides "they took my post down"? Whining crybabies all of you!

        2. DesigNate   3 years ago

          Goddamn, are you trying to be this intentionally obtuse?

          1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

            The obtuse ones here are the ones who REFUSE to name me a SINGLE CASE of a person actually PUNISHED BY GOVERNMENT ALMIGHTY for not allowing Government Almighty to micro-manage their social media!!! "Put up or shut up" means NOTHING to you LIARS!!! Tell the same old lies all over and over and over again, just like Your Hero, Der TrumpfenFuhrer!

        3. Zeb   3 years ago

          There is a pretty concerted effort happening right now to silence Alex Jones. Whatever you think of him (I'm not a fan particularly), anyone who cares about free speech should be very troubled by it.

          1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

            His lies about the Sandy Hook massacre being faked led to death threats against parents whose kids got murdered. This is real and demonstrable damage done, due to lies. This is FAR removed from Government Almighty punishing people for moderating their own web sites per their own preferences.

      2. Gaear Grimsrud   3 years ago

        I'd love to see Facebook somehow out of existence but I was hoping for something along the lines of tar, feathers and woodchippers.

        1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

          Punishing enemies is more important than freedom, small government, and the rule of law. THIS is where authoritarianism comes from!

        2. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

          I was thinking that it's odd that the 'brave anarchosocialist-resistance' hackers haven't noticed that derpbook & twitter are tools of the state... Then, the 'resistance' are products of the left's education system.

  6. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   3 years ago

    Section 230 allows the tech companies to do whatever the government wants.

    1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

      Section 230 …
      https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200531/23325444617/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act.shtml

      So PLEASE tell us HOW it is, that Section 230 specially favors ANYONE?

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   3 years ago

        Being part of the Communications Decency Act, which Matt Welch called to have repealed? What could be bad about that?

        1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

          So... NO special favors for special people in Section 230, that you can name??!?! OMFG, ***WHAT*** are we gonna DO, without special favors for special people?!??! OMFG, my hair's on fire!!!! Won't Government Almighty PLEASE SAVE ME?!??!

          1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            So you've got nothing.

            1. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

              YOUR tribe is the one who has NOTHING (not even BRAINS) on this issue! "They took my post down"!!! WAAAAAA!!!! Cry me a river, bitch!

  7. Unicorn Abattoir   3 years ago

    KJP makes me miss Jen Psaki, like Jen misses Pete Doocy backing her up against a wall and pushing her skirt up...

    /may or may not be completely accurate.

    1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

      guaranteed there's a Rule 34 if this out there somewhere

      1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        I'd like to see it. I'm usually not a fan of vapid, insane, dishonest women, but there's something in her dark, soulless eyes that gives me a little tingle.

        1. American Mongrel   3 years ago

          +

    2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      KJP looks like a cute little hamster like Pokémon.

      I'd like to keep her in my pocket and feed her ice cream, and every time I want to contest a restaurant bill I'd go "I choose you, Fibberko!" and let her have at it.

      1. American Mongrel   3 years ago

        ++
        You're on a roll!

  8. JasonAZ   3 years ago

    "Twitter's decision to limit the circulation of the Hunter Biden laptop story was due to how the company had come under fire, trotted before Congress, and subsequently strengthened their hacked materials policy. "

    News Flash Liz. It was just twitter that censored this story. FaceDerp censored it. The entire media ignored it, except a few conservative outlets. This was quite a bit more than Twitter simply applying a policy differently. They were clearly part of an organized attempt to protect Democrats.

    Btw, this has been going on for years. It's accelerated since 2016 and Reason has sadly been part of the problem, not the solution. I remember plenty of Reason stories about the Russian Hoax, but where was the story where you admit you fucked up and apologize to your readers?

    Let's face it. You aren't sorry. You did your part to support YOUR team and defeat Trump. Now, you've started problems you don't like? First step, not bullshit stories like this but taking a hard look in the mirror. Second step, apologize for your part of the problem.

    1. JasonAZ   3 years ago

      Wasn't* Damnit, an edit button would really be great.

      1. Unicorn Abattoir   3 years ago

        Edit buttons are for leftwing journalists. Not that they'd actually use them.

  9. TJJ2000   3 years ago

    Hello... It wasn't that long ago 10-Democrats in Congress shut-down the sitting president. This isn't new news; its just more news for those in denial.

  10. Cronut   3 years ago

    Are you guys fucking serious with this article?

    1. JesseAz   3 years ago

      They have no shame. Never introspection on their past takes or why they were wrong before.

  11. Liberty Lover   3 years ago

    How Biden Administration Officials Bully Social Media Companies Into Censorship
    Only one Administration in history has ever done this bullying.
    Though I am surprised Reason didn't try to blame it on Trump, who was the focus of so much of this bullying.

  12. Redundant Pirahna Vigil   3 years ago

    Lawmakers.

    If they are not busy writing you up with a citation for having spread information, then they threaten you as if you have been saying things that can be legislated into crimes.

    Therefore, first amendment does not offer protection from elected officials nor their any laws that threaten free speech -- other than as backup plan.

    A forefront plan to address abuses of official power by removal from office or by succession with the major rival could be more successful.

  13. Jones M. Murphy, Jr.   3 years ago

    I saw no complaints from Reason whatsoever on behalf of Kaepernick:

    Trump Threatens NFL Players Who Took Knee In Preseason: 'Stand Proudly ... Or Be Suspended Without Pay' https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/president-donald-trump-threatens-nfl-players-suspended-without-pay-national-anthem/

    1. boroka   3 years ago

      to Murphy: There were plenty of conservatives and/or Republicans who objwcted to Trump's tweets. Big difference: Trump threatened and nothing happened; teams cand and do kneel.
      When the Bidenesue force threatens, social media obeys, almost without exception.

      And they talk about Fas*ism.

  14. Politician   3 years ago

    If you start thinking about where you could locate a social media platform's headquarters, (Andorra? Gibraltar? Liechtenstein?) watch out. The United States of America was supposed to be the place where folks could go to escape tyranny.

  15. Redundant Pirahna Vigil   3 years ago

    Ever notice how only the people who do not comply get other people killed? For example, those who do not wear the hijab lure others not to wear one while police illegally beat them to death?illegally

    Be aware that the issue of what causes death to other people has now become so specious -- and probably insignificant -- that we may be looking serious risk of the continuum fallacy.
    https://www.logicalfallacies.org/continuum-fallacy.html

    If human life matters, and those who know what were best for their own health are not getting the vaccine (or are), then why should this be a problem if human rights actually name our sole contractual means of protection?

    Only a leader who can lead with a magnifying glass may be worthy of a vote. Therefore, partisans try to arrange a shortage of magnification.

  16. ONTIME   3 years ago

    Seriously, Zuckerberg spills the beans about fascism of collusion between the last 2 admins and social media tech and only the gov is the blame? They were trading banning speech tit for tat and then the Tech media was filling the coffers of the left wing politicians.....I find this more than horribly offensive I find it lacking in candor, integrity and merit.....We got'ta get back to being a Representative Republic under Constitutional guidance and rule of law the way it's supposed to work or let the streets run with blood.....

  17. vanessaa   3 years ago

    Thank you so much for this detailed and nice article. Anyway, in case we are talking about various social media, then I think that this article on https://adbraze.com/blog/facebook-ad-campaign-structure-best-practices can help you to understand how all these ads campaigns work and I hope that it will be useful

  18. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

    So then PLEASE point out to us... ONE example of a hi-tech "media platform" (or CEO thereof) who has actually been PUNISHED by Government Almighty, for such offenses? "The drunken minions under the bridge threatened me!" doesn't count! When they have STANDING to sue, let them sue!

  19. Rossami   3 years ago

    re: "It's called government censorship"

    Close but not quite (and that matters in the law). Technically, it's censorship by proxy or the agency theory of censorship. Still illegal but not exactly the same as just "censorship".

    That said, I also dislike the abuse of language through arbitrary creation of buzzwords and jargon. "Jawboning" used to merely mean 'standing around talking casually to kill the time'. To most of us, it still does.

  20. Gaear Grimsrud   3 years ago

    Look. Until some guy at Cato noticed this shit and made up a whole new term for it, Reason editors had no idea this was going on. How could they? It didn't show up on ENB's twitter feed.

  21. Zeb   3 years ago

    Which stupid term? "Jawboning"? I think that's just a means of carrying out censorship, not an alternative term for it.

  22. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

    Do you recall the awesome enchanter named “Tim”, in “Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail”? The one who could “summon fire without flint or tinder”? Well, you remind me of Tim… You are an enchanter who can summon persuasion without facts or logic!

    So I discussed your awesome talents with some dear personal friends on the Reason staff… Accordingly…

    Reason staff has asked me to convey the following message to you:

    Hi Fantastically Talented Author:

    Obviously, you are a silver-tongued orator, and you also know how to translate your spectacular talents to the written word! We at Reason have need for writers like you, who have near-magical persuasive powers, without having to write at great, tedious length, or resorting to boring facts and citations.

    At Reason, we pay above-market-band salaries to permanent staff, or above-market-band per-word-based fees to freelancers, at your choice. To both permanent staff, and to free-lancers, we provide excellent health, dental, and vision benefits. We also provide FREE unlimited access to nubile young groupies, although we do firmly stipulate that persuasion, not coercion, MUST be applied when taking advantage of said nubile young groupies.

    Please send your resume, and another sample of your writings, along with your salary or fee demands, to ReasonNeedsBrilliantlyPersuasiveWriters@Reason.com .

    Thank You! -Reason Staff

  23. JesseAz   3 years ago

    You may be the only one left without sarcs sock muted.

  24. Idaho Bob   3 years ago

    That MF is the only one I have muted. The nonsensical ramblings were a bit too much.

  25. Ted   3 years ago

    I think he’s the only commenter I have muted, outside of spammers.

  26. JesseAz   3 years ago

    When it takes 3 swipes to get past idiocy I mute. Joe is close with his full article posts from NYT.

  27. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

    So then PLEASE point out to us... ONE example of a hi-tech "media platform" (or CEO thereof) who has actually been PUNISHED by Government Almighty, for such offenses? "The drunken minions under the bridge threatened me!" doesn't count! When they have STANDING to sue, let them sue!

    Brain-dead fuckers can NOT answer this!!! People with actual brains? TAKE NOTE!!!! (Offenses here are THREATENED, not real!!! The drunks under the bridge threatened to hold their breaths till they died, to COERCE me!!! HELP ME!! So say the fucking whining crybabies.)

  28. SQRLSY One   3 years ago

    Goldilicks GorillaShit has NOTHING to say, admits defeat... WHAT an utter surprise!! You mean to say that those who have no brains... HAVE NO BRAINS?!?!? Color me SHOCKED!!!

  29. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

    I'll never mute Sqrlsy. His hypocrisy and deranged advocacy of infanticide and child maiming are good reminders of what exactly the world is facing from the extreme left.

    I do spamflag his copypasta shitposts to make a thread more readable though.

  30. Sometimes a Great Notion   3 years ago

    The term “jawboning” was first used to describe official speech intended to control the behavior of businessmen and financial markets. John Kenneth Galbraith noted that the activities of the World War II Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply were called jawboning.

    - Per Cato. So depending on your age...

  31. Social Justice is neither   3 years ago

    No, jawboning in a political sense has always been talking to get people to move in the direction you want so you don't have to take action or responsibility. GWB giving a speech to the public post 9-11 about spend spend spend was jawboning to avert the recession predicted in the wake of the attack.

    To me the problem comes when the jawboning isn't to a mass audience but select people or is done in secret to affect a result people wouldn't accept if you were honest ad spoke to them directly.

  32. Social Justice is neither   3 years ago

    This article is just redefining something as sinister because it's presently being used n a sinister manner.

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