President Biden’s reelection campaign is creating a group specifically to monitor misinformation on social media, according to The Hill. The group will be led by deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, communication director Michael Tyler, general counsel Maury Riggan, and aides from the rapid response communications team and legal team. The goal of the group is to push back on any disinformation missed by the companies.
The new social media monitoring group on the Biden campaign suggests that they do not believe social media companies will do a diligent job watching and responding to disinformation. Discussing the aggressive push back, Flaherty said, “Social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of how their platforms affect the American people, but make independent choices about how they reinforce their standards.”
Previously, social media companies were asked to take down content deemed misinformation. Now, however, the Biden team is seeking an alternative as it is mixed up in legal trouble over free speech concerns.
The Hill reports, “An appeal court earlier this month determined that the administration likely violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to moderate specific content – including vaccine information – ruling that federal agencies cannot ‘coerce’ social media platforms to take down posts the government doesn’t like.”
The White House’s effort to monitor social media first focused on reporting and debunking misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. Flaherty was asked to testify about his conversations with social media companies over content the White House wanted removed. Rep. Jim Jordan (D-Oh] shared his findings of the Biden administration’s tactics to regulate social media content.