Senator Cruz Exposes Facebook-White House Coordination: Emails Show Account Removed “Within 46 Seconds” of White House Request

On 9/21/2022, Senator Cruz read from emails discovered in Missouri v. Biden litigation showing Facebook coordinated with the White House, HHS, and CDC to censor constitutionally protected speech — including removing an Instagram account within 46 seconds of a White House official’s request. A current Facebook executive admitted the coordination was “company policy” and said she believed it was “appropriate.” A former executive testified he had “no experience” of such coordination during his tenure. Cruz called it “a pattern and practice of meeting, coordinating, and colluding with the United States government to target particular speech.”

46-Second Removal

Cruz read the most damaging email. “On July 20, 2021, Clark Humphrey at the White House — the digital director of the COVID-19 response team — emailed Dave Sumner at your company asking: ‘Any way we can get this pulled down?’ and cited a specific Instagram account,” Cruz said. “Within 46 seconds, your company responded: ‘Yep, on it.’ And down the account went.”

Monthly “Debunking Meetings” With CDC

Cruz catalogued additional emails showing systematic coordination:

July 16, 2021: Facebook employee wrote to HHS: “I know our team met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.”
July 23, 2021: Facebook thanked HHS “for taking the time to meet” and highlighted “steps we just took this past week to adjust policies and what we are removing.”
April 7, 2021: Facebook thanked CDC for “responding to misinformation queries” and said “we’ll get moving now to remove all but that one claim.”
July 28, 2022: Facebook proposed “doing a monthly misinformation debunking meeting.” The CDC responded: “Yes, we would love to do that."

"Company Policy”

Cruz pressed the current Facebook executive. “You’re saying that this was, in fact, company policy — to have these meetings with HHS, the CDC, the White House directly? You engaged in this behavior and you think it was entirely fine?”

“I do believe it’s appropriate for companies like ours to be in consultation with public health organizations and with government,” the executive said.

“There’s a difference between putting forward information and censoring your users at the behest of the White House,” Cruz said. “You didn’t just consult with them. You actually censored on their behalf — you took down accounts, planned misinformation policies, adjusted policies at the behest of the United States government.”

“The balance of how to protect free expression as well as public safety is a difficult issue,” the executive said.

First Amendment Violation

Cruz made the constitutional argument. “The United States government is bound by the First Amendment. They cannot encourage or coerce or collude with a private party to get around the First Amendment,” Cruz said.

“You just said to me today that you coordinated with them repeatedly over a pattern of months and years to adjust and target your speech policies for protected speech at the behest of the United States government. I have a big problem with that. And I think all your users should too.”

Cruz asked directly: “Do you think it’s appropriate to work with the United States government to target private individual speech that is constitutionally protected?”

“Senator, I’m not aware of that,” the executive said.

“Well, let me educate you,” Cruz responded — then read the email chain.

Former Executive: “Not My Experience”

A former Facebook vice president testified he had no experience of such government coordination. “During my time there, the company was more reluctant to take down speech and very careful about removing content,” the former executive said.

“Not like what they were doing later, when they were looking at particular private Instagram accounts and removing them at the behest of the White House?” Cruz asked.

“That’s not a scenario that I ran across,” the former executive said.

Key Takeaways

Emails showed Facebook removed an Instagram account within 46 seconds of a White House request and held monthly “misinformation debunking meetings” with the CDC.
A current Facebook executive admitted coordinating with the White House to censor speech was “company policy” and “appropriate.”
Cruz argued the coordination violated the First Amendment: “The government cannot encourage or coerce a private party to get around the First Amendment.”
Facebook adjusted policies, increased content demotions, and removed accounts specifically at the direction of White House, HHS, and CDC officials.
A former executive said such coordination “didn’t happen” during his tenure — raising questions about when and why it started.

Transcript Highlights

The following is transcribed from the video audio (unverified — AI-generated from audio).

Within 46 seconds, Facebook responded: “Yep, on it.” And down the account went.
I do believe it’s appropriate for companies like ours to be in consultation with government. You didn’t just consult — you censored on their behalf.
The government cannot encourage or coerce or collude with a private party to get around the First Amendment.
We’ll get moving now to remove all but that one claim as soon as the announcement happens.
Monthly misinformation debunking meeting? CDC responded: Yes, we would love to do that.
That’s not a scenario I ran across during my time at Facebook.

Full transcript: 1676 words transcribed via Whisper AI.