The Biden White House and Vaccines

That time when FB deboosted the Biden WH for being anti-vax, a🧵:
After months of hectoring @Meta to delete and deboost true content regarding vaccines, on July 15, 2021, the Biden White House complained to FB that its FB page wasn't growing fast enough for its liking.
1/5

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) March 25, 2023

An email from FB to the White House: "FB take[s] aggressive steps to reduce the spread of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine misinformation on our platforms... We have measures to help ensure we don't recommend people follow accounts that promote vaccine hesitancy at scale..."
2/5

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) March 25, 2023

"...For two weeks in April (April 14-28) this measure [to censor anti-vax content against the White House's official FB account] was impacted by over-enforcement on a signal we used."
3/5

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) March 25, 2023

What had happened? Well, April 14-28, 2021 corresponds closely to the dates that the @CDCgov and Biden White House had "paused" the J&J vaccine, which killed momentum for vaccine uptake in the US. FB algorithms caught the White House out as anti-vaxxers.
4/5

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) March 25, 2023

Ironically, the @CDCgov and @CDCDirector had fired @MartinKulldorff from an advisory board for publishing a piece in @thehill arguing that the data at the time did not warrant pausing the J&J vax. The White House fired him for being too pro-vax.
5/5

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) March 25, 2023