How deep did the Biden administration's censorship regime go, which infamously targeted Twitter and Facebook? According to newly subpoenaed emails by the House Judiciary Committee, it even reached the world's largest retailer, Amazon.
Rep. Jim Jordan released some of the details on Monday, which included former Biden official Andy Slavitt pressuring Amazon to censor books that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.
That last sentence is chilling. As if there's nothing wrong with what was occurring, an Amazon worker asks, "Is the Admin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?"
As Jordan shows in the chain of emails, Amazon did hold off for a short period, but it wasn't long before they relented to White House demands, censoring search results for books deemed to be "disinformation" regarding COVID-19.
It's hard to describe how insanely improper (and possibly illegal) this is. The Biden administration used the power of its office to pressure a private company to censor books at they found politically inconvenient.
Contrast that with the absolute freak-out from Democrats when schools in Florida banned literal gay porn from being in classrooms. All the hand-wringing, including from the White House itself, was just for show. They don't really care about the First Amendment. They just want to expose children to gross content while getting books they don't like, which actually do fall under the broad rubric of freedom of speech, censored and removed.
Various court rulings in the aftermath of the original Twitter Files have put the Biden administration's censorship regime on ice, mostly thanks to the State of Missouri and its attorney general. Still, it's important to know how deep this went. It is downright Orwellian for the executive branch to pressure retailers to censor search results and sales of books.