Emails Reveal Pressure from Biden Administration on Amazon to Censor COVID-19 Books

Newly disclosed emails reveal that top officials in President Joe Biden’s administration pressured Amazon to censor certain books about COVID-19. The emails show that Andrew Slavitt, President Biden’s senior adviser for responding to COVID-19, reached out to Amazon on March 2, 2021, expressing concerns about the “high levels of propaganda and misinformation” on the platform. Another White House official, Zach Butterworth, also contacted Amazon, pointing out a book on vaccines that did not display any warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Internal emails from Amazon show that the company decided not to carry out “manual intervention” in response to the White House concerns because it would be too visible and could further fuel negative narratives. However, the company did make some changes, such as placing a box directing people to the CDC’s website on more pages. They also considered tagging content with labels similar to Facebook and Twitter but did not want to disclose this consideration to the White House.

The emails also mention that Amazon removed Ryan T. Anderson’s book “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” a few weeks earlier, which sparked backlash and negative stories due to its framing of LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.

Following the initial contact, White House officials later met with Amazon officials, although it is unclear what was discussed during the meeting. The White House submitted questions ahead of the meeting, including one about Amazon’s guidelines on misleading content. It questioned whether this guideline included the spread of misleading information about vaccination.

On the same day as the scheduled Amazon-White House meeting, Amazon enabled a “Do Not Promote” effort for “anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective.” As a result of a review of nine titles, one book was removed for violating the company’s COVID-19 policy.

The emails indicate that Amazon officials felt pressure from the White House on the matter and were considering additional steps to reduce the visibility of books related to vaccine misinformation.

The release of these emails by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has sparked controversy. Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the panel, stated that “Amazon caved to the pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech.” However, both Amazon and the White House have not responded to requests for comment on the matter.

This revelation about pressure to censor books comes at a time when the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is holding a hearing on how the federal government has been weaponizing artificial intelligence (AI) and funding the development of AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools. The subcommittee aims to examine the threat to the First Amendment posed by these tools, which can be used by governments and Big Tech to monitor and censor speech at scale. Witnesses in the hearing include journalist Lee Fang and Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

It is worth noting that previous documents uncovered in a lawsuit against the federal government have shown that both the Trump and Biden administrations pressured companies like Facebook and Twitter to take action against alleged misinformation. Government agencies, including the CDC, were involved in applying this pressure. Some courts have found these actions likely violated the U.S. Constitution and have blocked the government from pressuring companies to censor content. The U.S. Supreme Court has also weighed in on the matter by staying an injunction related to this issue.

The issue of censorship and the role of the government in influencing content moderation decisions continues to be a topic of debate and legal scrutiny. The recent revelations regarding pressure on Amazon to censor COVID-19 books add another layer to this ongoing discussion about free speech and misinformation in the digital age.