Biden administration’s admission they’re flagging content to Facebook sparks furor

White House officials are notifying Facebook about posts that allegedly spread COVID-19 misinformation as part of efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to combat what U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy described as “an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health.”

The announcement during a Thursday press briefing at the White House received criticism from conservative media outlets like National Review and The Daily Caller, the latter of which published an article about the press briefing under a banner referring to “Big Brother Biden.”

Murthy and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki discussed their efforts as part of a “new campaign” to fight virus-related misinformation. An advisory recently published by Murthy’s office details steps that tech outlets, private citizens, local governments and media outlets can take to battle misinformation when they come across it.

Psaki said part of the Biden administration’s new campaign involves asking social media companies to be more active in combatting misinformation and to share the results of their efforts publicly.

Apple, Facebook, Google, Pinterest and Spotify are technically private companies. But their power over the flow of information is now enormous. And the line between them and the government is blurry at best. Silicon Valley technology companies spent over $49 million lobbying Congress, federal agencies and the White House last year. And many Silicon Valley executives have taken senior government positions. Corporate lobbying gives Big Tech companies power and influence over government policy and behavior, allowing them to establish digital monopolies.

The Internet moguls are now confident enough to blatantly restrict free speech.

Authoritarian governments in China and Iran regulate what information their citizens can access online. The First Amendment forbids Congress from enacting similar censorship laws. But that doesn’t stop these tech companies from making decisions with similar effects. When you spend $49 million to improve your relationships with lawmakers and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., you’re wasting your money if you allow people to criticize the government using your platform. …

As America’s “New Morality” grows more fanatical, powerful, stringent and hostile to biblical morality, the Trumpet, by standing its ground, finds itself more on the fringe. Amos 7:10, an end-time prophecy, describes a time when God’s message is marginalized, as “the land is not able to bear all his words.” We are watching society move inexorably closer to that time.

Soon, public antagonism will combine with political force to abolish that message. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).

“A Hit on Free Speech in America,” Philadelphia Trumpet, October 2018