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4 

MURTHY v. MISSOURI 

Opinion of the Court 

post, complained: “[L]ast time we did this dance, it ended in 
an  insurrection.”  Id.,  at  698.  Another  official,  unhappy
with  Facebook’s  supposed  lack  of  transparency  about  its
vaccine  misinformation  problems,  wrote:  “Internally  we
have been considering our options on what to do about it.” 
Id., at 657.  Publicly, White House communications officials 
called  on  the  platforms  to  do  more  to  address  COVID–19
misinformation—and,  perhaps  as  motivation,  raised  the
possibility  of  reforms  aimed  at  the  platforms,  including 
changes to the antitrust laws and 47 U. S. C. §230. 

Surgeon General.  In July 2021, Surgeon General Vivek 
Murthy issued a health advisory on misinformation.  The 
advisory encouraged platforms to “[r]edesign recommenda-
tion  algorithms  to  avoid  amplifying  misinformation,”
“[i]mpose  clear  consequences  for  accounts  that  repeatedly
violate platform policies,” and “[p]rovide information from 
trusted  and  credible  sources  to  prevent  misconceptions
from taking hold.”  3 Record 662.  At a press conference to 
announce  the  advisory,  Surgeon  General  Murthy  argued 
that the platforms should “operate with greater transpar-
ency and accountability.”  2 id., at 626.  The following year,
the  Surgeon  General  issued  a  “Request  for  Information,”
seeking,  among  other  things,  reports  on  each  platform’s
“COVID–19  misinformation  policies.”  Impact  of  Health
Misinformation in the Digital Information Environment in
the  United  States  Throughout  the  COVID–19  Pandemic 
Request for Information (RFI), 87 Fed. Reg. 12714 (Mar. 7,
2022). 

CDC.  Like  the  White  House,  the  CDC  frequently  com-
municated  with  the  platforms  about  COVID–19  misinfor-
mation.  In early 2020, Facebook reached out to the agency,
seeking  authoritative  information  about  the  virus  that  it 
could post on the platform.  The following year, the CDC’s
communications  expanded  to  other  platforms,  including
Twitter and YouTube.  The CDC hosted meetings and sent
reports  to  the  platforms,  alerting  them  to  misinformation