Jim Jordan caught President Joe Biden engaging in an illegal Quid Pro Quo and busted Biden threatening great American companies in direct violation of the Constitution.
Journalist Michael Shellenberger broke down what the GOP discovered:
“Many insist it wasn’t illegal for the White House to demand greater censorship by Facebook, but it was. Not only did Biden threaten Facebook’s legal (Sec. 230) status, Facebook desperately needed Biden to force Europe to allow data flows into the US, which he did. Quid pro quo.
“A lot has come out about Facebook’s censorship, so our new scoop may seem like old news, but it’s not. What we discovered is that White House exercised a different form of leverage over Facebook, one as powerful, and maybe more so, than threatening its legal existence.
“Until now, critics of censorship have focused on Biden’s threat to revoke Facebook’s Section 230 liability protection.
“The new emails reveal a new form of White House leverage: its conditional willingness to stop the EU from demanding Facebook halt data flows to the US.
As context, about 10% of Facebook’s ad revenue, $1.2 billion, comes from selling ads in the EU. Doing so depends on “data flows” from EU to US.
“The EU has demanded an end to those data flows and in May fined Meta, Facebook’s parent company, a record $1.3B for refusing to do so.
I’ll explain why EU didn’t want Facebook to transfer EU data to the US in a moment
“What matters now is understanding that when Biden officials demanded greater censorship by Facebook executives, those same execs were worried WH might not support them against the EU.
“Here’s the smoking gun email. Senior Facebook exec Nick Clegg, a former UK politician, sent it in July 2021.
“He tells his staff to carry out White House censorship demands because of “the bigger fish we have to fry with the Administration — data flows etc…” [from EU to US]
“A potential end of EU-to-US data flows is an even more urgent threat to Facebook’s business than White House threats to Section 230.
“While neither Congress nor the Biden Administration have shown much willingness to follow through on their threats to modify Section 230, the European Union has imposed fine after fine on Meta/Facebook.
Last Nov., EU regulators fined Meta $291M for a data leak.
“In Jan, they fined Meta $429 million for making users accept personalized ads in order to use Facebook.
“Meta is a rich company, but a few hundred million here, and a billion there, starts to add up!
But the real threat from the EU comes to its core business: using user data to target advertising.
“If the EU doesn’t allow Facebook to control that data, then EU is destroying the core of Facebook’s business.
“In the end, the quid pro quo deal was done. Facebook did the censoring that Biden admin requested, and after years of talks, the Biden Admin forced EU to make a deal, the “EU-US Data Privacy Framework,” which they announced last month.
“This censorship-for-data scheme violates the US Constitution.
“This is a gross violation of the First Amendment,” Columbia Law School Professor Philip Hamburger told Public, “not only because it involves what the Supreme Court considers ‘coercion,’ but also because it’s equally unconstitutional for the government to seek censorship through contract or conspiracy. And that’s what happened here.”
Jim Jordan said:
“The extensive investigation of the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has uncovered smoking gun documents showing how Big Tech and Big Government worked together to stifle free speech online.
“We know through the Facebook Files that the Biden Administration directed Big Tech companies to censor speech the government disagreed with, and launched a pressure campaign when companies did not comply with these censorship orders quickly enough.”
Here’s the smoking gun email. Senior Facebook exec Nick Clegg, a former UK politician, sent it in July 2021.
He tells his staff to carry out White House censorship demands because of “the bigger fish we have to fry with the Administration — data flows etc…” [from EU to US] pic.twitter.com/DInabmn9no
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 8, 2023
In the end, the quid pro quo deal was done. Facebook did the censoring that Biden admin requested, and after years of talks, the Biden Admin forced EU to make a deal, the “EU-US Data Privacy Framework,” which they announced last month.
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 8, 2023
This censorship-for-data scheme violates the US Constitution.
“This is a gross violation of the First Amendment,” Columbia Law School Professor Philip Hamburger told Public, “not only because it involves what the Supreme Court considers ‘coercion,’ but also because it’s equally…
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 8, 2023
