Vivek Murthy’s Demand for Data on COVID ‘Misinformation’ Is Part of a Creepy Crusade to Suppress Dissent

Last July, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory that called for a “whole-of-society” effort to combat the “urgent threat to public health” posed by “health misinformation.” Today Murthy asked tech companies to do their part by turning over data on “COVID-19 misinformation,” including its sources and its propagation through search engines, social media platforms, instant messaging services, and e-commerce sites, by May 2.

While Murthy himself has no power to compel disclosure of that information, the companies have strong incentives to cooperate, since the Biden administration can make life difficult for them by filing lawsuits, writing regulations, and supporting new legislation. President Joe Biden has endorsed the campaign to suppress “misinformation,” going so far as to accuse social media platforms of “killing people” by allowing the spread of anti-vaccine messages. Murthy’s advisory, which defines misinformation to include statements that he deems “misleading” even when they are arguably or verifiably true, says the battle against it might include “appropriate legal and regulatory measures.”

All of this is more than a little creepy in a country where people have a constitutional right to express their opinions, even when they are outlandish and ill-founded. It is especially chilling given the administration’s highly elastic definition of misinformation, which includes criticism of controversial pronouncements by agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC itself has a long track record of misrepresenting scientific evidence and misleading the public.

“Defining ‘misinformation’ is a challenging task, and any definition has limitations,” Murthy concedes in his advisory. “One key issue is whether there can be an objective benchmark for whether something qualifies as misinformation. Some researchers argue that for something to be considered misinformation, it has to go against ‘scientific consensus.’ Others consider misinformation to be information that is contrary to the ‘best available evidence.’ Both approaches recognize that what counts as misinformation can change over time with new evidence and scientific consensus. This Advisory prefers the ‘best available evidence’ benchmark since claims can be highly misleading and harmful even if the science on an issue isn’t yet settled.” – READ MORE