Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 44.0

10 

MURTHY v. MISSOURI 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

9391,  9397.  Flaherty  also  forwarded  to  Facebook  a 
“COVID–19 Vaccine Misinformation Brief ” that had been 
drafted  by  outside  researchers  and  was  “informing  think-
ing” in the White House on what Facebook’s policies should 
be.  52 id., at 16186.  This document recommended that Fa-
cebook strengthen its efforts against misinformation in sev-
eral ways.  It recommended the adoption of “progressively 
severe penalties” for accounts that repeatedly posted mis-
information, and it proposed that Facebook make it harder 
for  users  to  find  “anti-vaccine  or  vaccine-hesitant  propa-
ganda” from other users.  Ibid.  Facebook declined to adopt
some of these suggestions immediately, but it did “se[t] up 
more  dedicated  monitoring  for  [COVID]  vaccine  content” 
and adopted a policy of “stronger demotions [for] a broader 
set of content.”  30 id., at 9396. 

The  White  House  responded  with  more  questions.    Ac-
knowledging  that  he  sounded  “like  a  broken  record,”  Fla-
herty  interrogated  Facebook  about  “how  much  content  is 
being  demoted,  and  how  effective  [Facebook  was]  at  miti-
gating reach, and how quickly.”  Id., at 9395.  Later, Fla-
herty  chastised  Facebook  for  failing  to  prevent  some 
vaccine-hesitant content from showing up through the plat-
form’s search function.  Id., at 9400.  “ ‘[R]emoving bad in-
formation from search’ is one of the easy, low-bar things you 
guys do to make people like me think you’re taking action,”
he  said.  Id.,  at  9399.  “If  you’re  not  getting  that  right,  it
raises  even  more  questions  about  the  higher  bar  stuff.” 
Ibid.  A  few  weeks  after  this  latest  round  of  haranguing,
Facebook  expanded  penalties  for  individual  Facebook  ac-
counts  that  repeatedly  shared  content  that  fact-checkers 
deemed  misinformation;  henceforth,  all  of  those  individu-
als’  posts  would  show  up  less  frequently  in  their  friends’ 
news  feeds.   See  9  id.,  at  2697;  Facebook,  Taking  Action
Against  People  Who  Repeatedly  Share  Misinformation