U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, (R-Ohio) took to X on Monday to reveal that the White House pressured Amazon to censor books that did not agree with the Biden Administration’s narrative on COVID-19, government lockdowns, and the mRNA shots produced by major pharmaceutical companies.
“Never-before-released internal emails subpoenaed by @JudiciaryGOP reveal that the Biden White House pressured Amazon to censor books that expressed views the White House did not approve of,” said Rep. Jordan on X.
Jordan released his findings in a lengthy, 16 tweet thread on X, which included multiple emails between the White House and Amazon.
The exchange began when Andy Slavitt, who previously served as the White House Senior Advisor for the COVID Response, reached out to Amazon about the “disinformation” available on Amazon on March 2, 2021.
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of Amazon,” said Slavitt.
According to documents published by Jordan in July, Slavitt was also engaged in pressuring Facebook to censor messages contradicting the regime’s stance on the COVID vaccines.
The email exchange shows that Slavitt determined that Amazon was selling books of “disinformation” by searching for the word “vaccine,” and finding books with which he disagreed.
Initially, Amazon was resistant to the White House’s requests that the books be censored, and determined not to conduct a “manual intervention” on the books, because they feared that an intervention would be too public, and would draw bad press from conservative news outlets.
Amazon also pushed back when the White House asked the corporation if their policy against “descriptive content” meant to mislead customers applied to books critical of the COVID vaccines.
“As a retailer, we provide our customers with a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable,” said Amazon.
After Amazon’s resistance during the March 2nd email exchange, the White House scheduled a meeting with the company, set for March 9.
Amazon hoped to determine what, exactly, the Biden Administration wanted it to do about the alleged “disinformation.”
“One of the key questions was whether the Biden White House wanted books banned or just buried deep in the search results,” said Jordan on X.
After the meeting on March 9, Amazon caved to the White House’s demands by enabling “do not promote” on books critical of the COVID vaccine, and searching for other ways to “reduce the visibility” of the books deemed undesirable.
Amazon also admitted to banning at least one book outright because it violated their COVID policy.
The disclosure that Amazon engaged in censorship at the behest of the Biden Administration follows earlier revelations that social media giants Facebook and Twitter (now X) also blocked and shadow-banned content in a manner that aligned with priorities of elected Democrats.
