In fact, government agents did more than just flag posts and make ‘recommendations’. They aggressively browbeat companies to take down certain posts. Flaherty, Biden’s digital-strategy director, accused YouTube of ‘funnelling’ people into vaccine hesitancy. This, he said, was a concern that was ‘shared at the highest (and I mean the highest) levels of the White House’. In July 2021, Biden himself upped the rhetoric, accusing social-media companies of ‘killing people’.

The White House and other agencies also issued veiled threats of new regulatory liabilities for any disobedient tech firms. White House communications director Kate Bedingfield warned social-media companies that they could be held legally liable for misinformation on their platforms. On other occasions, the Biden administration threatened to take antitrust action against Big Tech firms. It also threatened to remove Section 230, a regulation that prevents tech companies from being sued for user-generated content on their platforms. …

The real harm to society has not come from purveyors of ‘disinformation’, but from the Biden administration and the army of state censors. By not allowing discussions of things like mask mandates and lockdowns, and by declaring such discussions to be threats to public health, Biden, the Democrats and government officials have stifled open debate. They have blocked scientific advancement. And they have denied Americans our right to free speech – the most fundamental right we have.