Back in July 2021, Jen Psaki, former press secretary of the White House told reporters that Biden administration was identifying “problematic” posts on Facebook to censor because those posts contained misinformation.
Psaki disclosed the government’s role in policing social media during her daily press briefing after Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on companies to purge more pandemic posts.
The demand for censorship — and Psaki’s admission of government involvement — follows a series of flip-flops from health officials who contradicted themselves throughout the pandemic on issues such as mask efficacy, as well as censorship of claims that later gained credibility, such as the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab.
“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic”, Psaki said.
She added: “We’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General’s Office. We are flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation”.
Psaki added, “it’s important to take faster action against harmful posts … and Facebook needs to move more quickly to remove harmful violative posts”.
According to information, Facebook and other social media platforms currently also are censoring pro-Russia posts and “disinformation” centering the Ukraine war. Hundreds of posts related to Ukraine war are being removed every day for violating Facebook’s “Community Standard”.
While social media platforms are very strict about any defamatory contents or posts with doctored photographs that target individuals, communities or countries, there are currently dozens of posts with doctored photos, bogus claims and instigative statements against Bangladesh. Several individuals namely Shahid Uddin Khan (Interpol wanted convicted terror-funder), Tasneem Khalil, Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami, Abdur Rab Bhuttow, Nazmus Saquib, Tito Rahman etcetera are continuing publishing series of disinformation and anti-Bangladesh bogus propaganda, along with doctored photographs, thus violating Facebook’s “Community Standard”. Interpol wanted terror funder Shahid Uddin Khan is even publishing posts with extremely objectionable and defamatory language targeting officials of Facebook. According to cyber experts, while as per existing policies, Facebook can permanently ban Shahid Uddin Khan from the platform and remove his existing accounts, it is necessary for the tech giant to take immediate measures against Facebook accounts of Shahid Uddin Khan, Tajul Islam Hashmi alias Taj Hashmi, Captain (sacked) Shahidul Islam, Tasneem Khalil, Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat alias Tanvir, Mina Farah, Tito Rahman, Nazmus Saquib, M Rahman Masum, Kanak Sarwar, Major (Sacked) Delwar Hossain, Pinaki Bhattacharya, Ilias Hossain, Abdur Rob Bhuttow and others.
