In the last several weeks, Facebook has been under fire for its close relationship with law enforcement agencies. That controversy expanded even further recently when two state Attorneys General filed a request with the Department of Justice to hand over all information about communications between the federal government and Facebook. According to these elected officials, multiple government agencies leaned on Facebook to censor posts that they viewed as misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Attorneys General who filed the request say they have already seen evidence of coordination between Facebook and government agencies, and now they want to launch an investigation to determine the extent of this pressure.

“We have already received a number of documents that clearly prove that the federal government has an incestuous relationship with social media companies and clearly coordinate to censor freedom of speech, but we’re not done,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry wrote. “The discovery provided so far demonstrates that this Censorship Enterprise is extremely broad… And it rises to the highest levels of the U.S. Government, including numerous White House officials.”

While many of these inquiries are designed to score political points at the expense of Facebook, they could also uncover genuinely useful information about how the social media giant shares our info with authorities.

Recommended Resources

Choose what the experts use: award-winning cybersecurity you can trust and rely on.

Surf the web truly incognito. Try Bitdefender Premium VPN, the ultra-fast VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops.

System Mechanic 14 – Make your computer run like new. Winner of 200+ Editor’s Choice awards!