Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 48.0

14 

MURTHY v. MISSOURI 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

Then in October, the Washington Post published yet an-
other story suggesting that Facebook knew more than it let 
on about the spread of misinformation.  Flaherty emailed
the link to Facebook with the subject line: “not even sure
what to say at this point.”  Id., at 2676.  And the Surgeon
General’s  Office  indicated  both  publically  and  privately
that it was disappointed in Facebook.  See @Surgeon_Gen-
eral,  X  (Oct.  29,  2021)  (accusing  Facebook  of  “lacking  . . . 
transparency and accountability”);14 9 Record 2708.  Face-
book offered to speak with both the White House and the
Surgeon  General’s  Office  to  assuage  concerns.    8  id.,  at 
2676. 

Interactions  related  to  COVID–19  misinformation  con-
tinued until at least June 2022.  Id., at 2663.  At that point,
Facebook  proposed  discontinuing  its  reports  on  misinfor-
mation,  but  assured  the  White  House  that  it  would  be 
“happy to continue, or to pick up at a later date, . . . if we 
hear from you that this continues to be of value.”  Ibid.  Fla-
herty  asked  Facebook  to  continue  reporting  on  misinfor-
mation because the Government was preparing to roll out
COVID–19 vaccines for children under five years old and,
“[o]bviously,” that rollout “ha[d] the potential to be just as
charged” as other vaccine-related controversies.  Ibid.  Fla-
herty added that he “[w]ould love to get a sense of what you
all are planning here,” and Facebook agreed to provide in-
formation for as long as necessary.  Ibid. 

What these events show is that top federal officials con-
tinuously and persistently hectored Facebook to crack down
on what the officials saw as unhelpful social media posts,
including  not  only  posts  that  they  thought  were  false  or
misleading but also stories that they did not claim to be lit-
erally false but nevertheless wanted obscured.  See, e.g., 30 
id., at 9361, 9365, 9369, 9385–9388.  And Facebook’s reac-
tions to these efforts were not what one would expect from 

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14 https://twitter.com/Surgeon_General/status/1454181191494606854.