Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 43.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

9 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

one  call,  both  officials  chided  Facebook  for  not  being
“straightforward” and not “play[ing] ball.”  Committee Re-
port 141–142.  Flaherty also informed Facebook that he was
reporting on the COVID–19 misinformation problem to the 
President.  Id., at 136. 

After  a  second  call,  a  high-ranking  Facebook  executive
perceived that Slavitt was “outraged—not too strong a word
to  describe  his  reaction”—that  the  platform  had  not  re-
moved a fast-spreading meme suggesting that the vaccines
might cause harm.  Id., at 295.  The executive had “coun-
tered that removing content like that would represent a sig-
nificant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expres-
sion in the US,” but Slavitt was unmoved, in part because 
he  presumed  that  other  platforms  “would  never  accept
something like this.”  Ibid. 

A  few  weeks  later,  White  House  Press  Secretary  Jen
Psaki was asked at a press conference about Facebook’s de-
cision to keep former President Donald Trump off the plat-
form.  See Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and 
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (May 5, 2021) (here-
inafter May 5 Press Briefing).8  Psaki deflected that ques-
tion but took the opportunity to call on platforms like Face-
book  to  “ ‘stop  amplifying  untrustworthy  content  . . .  , 
especially  related  to  COVID–19,  vaccinations,  and  elec-
tions.’ ”    78  Record  25170.    In  the  same  breath,  Psaki  re-
minded the platforms that President Biden “ ‘supports . . . a 
robust  anti-trust  program.’ ”    Id.,  at  25171  (emphasis  de-
leted); May 5 Press Briefing.

Around  this  same  time,  Flaherty  and  Slavitt  were  in- 
terrogating  Facebook  on  the  mechanics  of  its  content-
moderation rules for COVID–19 misinformation.  30 Record 

—————— 
and were published in a Committee Report.  See Committee Report; Fed. 
Rule Evid. 201. 

8 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/05/
05/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-and-secretary-of-agriculture
-tom-vilsack-may-5-2021.